The paper presents an experimental framework to address transportation sustainability. Based on tangible evidence, the study hypothesised that the perception sensitivity of passengers towards selecting a mode often causes unprecedented modal shifts, burdening the environment and creating significant bearings on the transport footprint. It performed experimental research to test the hypothesis by conducting a field study in urban fringe areas of Kolkata. Analysis reveals that passengers’ mode choice perception largely depends on accessibility to available transport modes. The decision-making process while selecting a travel mode is influenced by certain parameters, including comfort, cost, convenience, travel time, and safety. Passengers who responded were mostly young adults and from diverse socio-economic groups. Even though the emission was observed to be relatively lower for the prevailing traffic, inspection in this context clarifies that it could be due to the majority of vehicles in traffic being below ten years of age and diesel-based.