Effect of public transportation in reducing passenger car trips to schools in Al-Khobar–Dhahran metropolitan area, Saudi Arabia

School trips comprise a major portion of daily vehicular demand on urban road networks. Dependence on cars for school trips can induce congestion on a routine basis. In this study, use of sustainable transport strategy in the form of public transport has been analyzed using mode choice models. The objective of this study was to develop mode choice models for public boys’ schools in Al-Khobar and Dhahran metropolitan cities in Saudi Arabia. These schools do not have any public transport service. Mode choice modeling was done using logit models for the present modes as well as for future modes with a hypothetical bus service. From the mode choice models, it was found that family income is one of the significant factors for mode choice decisions, with or without bus service. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to find the market share of bus for different scenarios, which showed that bus service will become the dominant mode.