In developing countries like India, car users not only self-drive their cars, as commonly practised in developed countries. They also employ a permanent driver so that they can be driver-driven. The paper presents a convergent mixed-method approach to understanding car users’ choice to self-drive or be driver-driven. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with both types of car users in Patna to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data comprised demographic and socioeconomic attributes of the car user, and qualitative data included subjective reasons for choosing either way of using their car. A binary logit model with socioeconomic variables and subjective questions deduced from the qualitative reasons for self-drive and driver-driven was built to classify the factors encouraging the decision to be driver-driven. The subjective variables describe an individual’s physical and cognitive abilities to self-drive, generational habits, the tendency of car sharing among household members and the convenience of carrying out chain trips. Later, thick descriptions from qualitative interviews are supplied to provide anecdotal evidence and explain why the factors identified as significant in the choice model play a role in the decision to be driver-driven. The study concludes that car user’s decision to be driver-driven is not only influenced by their socioeconomic attributes but also by their life stage challenges, age-related constraints, disabilities, mobility needs, trip patterns, transport logic in carrying out the trip, habits and social norms etc.


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    Title :

    ‘To Drive’ or ‘To be Driver-Driven’: Motives Behind Car User’s Choice in India


    Additional title:

    Transp. in Dev. Econ.




    Publication date :

    2025-04-01




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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