Investigating the Impact of Emotional Perception on Low-carbon Urban Travel: A Case Study of Wuhan Metro

Abstract

As urban metro systems play an increasingly vital role in public transportation, passengers' emotional perception has become increasingly crucial for enhancing their travel experience and quality of life. This study establishes a theoretical relational model for whole-process perception during metro travel. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to validate the significant relationships between travel experience perceptions and passenger emotions throughout metro journeys. Furthermore, Multi-group Structural Equation Modeling (MSEM) was utilized to analyze group differences in emotional perception among populations with varying genders and travel frequencies. The findings reveal: (1) The impact mechanism demonstrates that metro passengers' travel emotions are positively influenced by pre-boarding/post-alighting perceptions, accessibility perception, and in-carriage perception, with accessibility perception exhibiting the strongest effect. (2) Group effect analysis indicates significant differences in metro travel emotional perception across gender groups and travel frequency subgroups.