SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS AFFECTING INTERCITY TRAVEL

A RESEARCH STUDY WAS CONDUCTED TO DEFINE THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS AFFECTING INTERCITY TRAVEL AND TO USE THE RESULTING RELATIONSHIPS WITH EXISTING TRAFFIC PREDICTION TOOLS TO PREDICT INTERCITY TRAVEL. DATA USED WERE THE EXTERNAL ORIGIN-AND-DESTINATION SURVEYS OF 22 CITIES. EXTENSIVE COMPUTER PROCESSING OF THESE DATA WAS REQUIRED TO MAKE THE DATA COMPARABLE. ANOTHER SOURCE OF DATA WAS THE U.S. CENSUS, FROM WHICH A SERIES OF 14 COMMONLY AVAILABLE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS WERE SELECTED AND RECORDED ON TAPE FOR EVERY COUNTY OR COUNTY EQUIVALENT IN THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES. TRIP DATA FROM THE ORIGINATION-DESTINATION STUDIES WERE SUMMARIZED BY TRIP PURPOSES AND BY INCREASING TIME RINGS FROM THE STUDY AREA CENTROIDS. A STEPWISE REGRESSION ANALYSIS COMPUTER PROGRAM WAS USED TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRIPS AND SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DATA. IN AN ALTERNATE ANALYSIS PROCEDURE, THE SURVEY DATA WERE UTILIZED TO DETERMINE THE AMOUNT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERCITY TRIP GENERATION. EQUATIONS WERE DEVELOPED TO ESTIMATE TRIPS PER CAPITA FOR TOTAL TRIPS, BUSINESS-ORIENTED TRIPS AND NON-BUSINESS ORIENTED TRIPS USING CORDON POPULATION AS THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE. EQUATIONS WERE ALSO DEVELOPED FOR TOTAL VEHICLE-HOURS OF INTERCITY TRAVEL BY THE SAME TRIP CLASSIFICATIONS. ALTHOUGH ORIGIN-AND-DESTINATION SURVEYS CONSTITUTE AN EXCELLENT SOURCE OF DATA, THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE LOCATION OF RESIDENTS OF THE SURVEY TRIPS WOULD BE AN ADDITIONAL BENEFIT. FOR SOCIAL AND RECREATIONAL TRIPS, THE USE OF URBAN AREA EXTERNAL ORIGIN-AND-DESTINATION SURVEY DATA IS NOT SUFFICIENT. THE USE OF READILY AVAILABLE CENSUS DATA ON A COUNTY BASIS IS RECOMMENDED BECAUSE IT PROVIDES SUFFICIENT VARIABLES FOR THIS TYPE OF STUDY. POPULATION RELATIONSHIPS, COMBINED WITH TRAVEL TIME, APPEARED TO BE THE MAJOR INDICATORS OF TRIP DISTRIBUTION CHARACTERISTICS. USE OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS AND STRATIFICATION OF CITIES BY SIZE AND BY SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS APPEARED TO BE SIGNIFICANT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRIP GENERATION FORMULAS. EXISTING TRIP PREDICTION TOOLS CAN BE SUCCESSFULLY USED AS THE BASIS FOR DEVELOPING INTERCITY TRAVEL PREDICTION EQUATIONS PROVIDING SOME CONTROL CAN BE EXERCISED OVER THE ORIGIN-AND-DESTINATION DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES. WITH ADDITIONAL REFINEMENTS TO THE PROCEDURES, THE ABILITY TO PREDICT INTERCITY TRAVEL ACCURATELY IS ASSURED.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_70.pdf
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00775614
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. No 70, 68 PP, 16 FIGS, 5 TABS, 17 REFS, 5 APPS
• Publication Date: 1969

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Serial:
  • NCHRP Report
  • Issue Number: 70
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0077-5614

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Census; Computer programs; Data collection; Economic conditions; Economic factors; Information processing; Intercity transportation; Origin and destination; Population; Regression analysis; Social values; Traffic forecasting; Travel time; Trip generation
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Economics; Highways; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00201722
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Dec 29 1994 12:00AM