ON THE FORMATION OF TRAVEL DEMAND MODELS AND ECONOMIC EVALUATION MEASURES OF USER BENEFIT

This paper examines a variety of issues within the context of two main themes: the formation of travel demand models and economic evaluation measures which are mutually consistent within a theory of rational choice; and a consideration of the structure of models which are representations of the trip decision process over several dimensions: location, mode, and route. Random utility theory is invoked to explore both the role and properties of composite costs or index prices in the 'recursive' approach to the structuring of travel choice models, and their significance in the economic evaluation problem. It is shown that the specification of these costs must be made very precisely, with respect to the demand model form chosen, in order to retain the underlying assumption that the traveller is an optimal decisionmaker. It is argued that the structure of 'simultaneous' models currently in use is inconsistent with the form of utility function assumed to generate those models. Furthermore, it is shown that the "simultaneous" and "recursive" forms are special cases of a more general choice model structure which takes specific account of correlation or 'commonality' of trip attributes. A number of applications are discussed in which consistent demand models and perceived user benefit measures are constructed. These include the formation of strategic transport planning models and of models for mixed-mode, multimode, and multiroute systems. The formalism allows definitive answers to be given to a number of problems of current interest in transportation planning, which have been incorrectly or incompletely treated.(a) /TRRL/

• Corporate Authors:

  Pion Limited

  207 Brondesburg Park
  London NW2 5JN,   England 
• Authors:
  • Williams, HCWL
• Publication Date: 1977

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 285-344
• Serial:
  • Environment and Planning
  • Volume: 9
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Pion Limited

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Decision making; Demand; Economic conditions; Economic impacts; Economics; Mathematical models; Mode choice; Multimodal transportation; Transportation; Transportation planning; Travel; Travel demand; Urban transportation; User benefits; Utility theory
• Uncontrolled Terms: Transportation models
• Old TRIS Terms: Modal selection
• ITRD Terms: 2248: Decision process; 285: Demand (econ); 255: Economics; 698: Journey; 6473: Mathematical model
• Subject Areas: Economics; Planning and Forecasting; Society; Transportation (General); I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00159790
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Report/Paper Numbers: Analytic
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 12 1981 12:00AM