SPECIAL-PURPOSE TRAVEL SURVEYS

Regional travel forecasting models often assume that trip-generation rates are stable over time. Though the validity of this assumption is confirmed with regard to overall trip rates per household, the assumption is less applicable to disaggregated trips. It is the contention of this paper that because of the demographic and labor-force transformations of the 1970s and 1980s, the composition of person trips has changed through a relative decline in the share of home-based/nonwork trips, as well as through an absolute drop in the average number of these trips per household. Paralleling this decline has been a rise in the shares and numbers of home-based work and non-home based trips. A comparison of the results with other metropolitan areas suggests that, in general, rates for special-purpose trips are more likely to be stable cross-sectionally than intertemporally. According to the 1984 Dallas-Fort Worth travel survey, an average household made 8.68 trips per day, a rate that has remained fairly stable since 1964. Person trips per person and vehicle trips per person, however, have had a pronounced increase since 1964 reflecting the smaller household size and lower automobile occupancy rates of the recent decade. The results of the 1984 travel survey also indicate that (a) the average trip length in the metropolitan area is about 7 mi, (b) the average trip duration is 17 to 19 min, (c) the automobile occupancy rate is 1.13 for work trips and 1.5 for nonwork trips, (d) the transit mode share is 1.7 percent, and (e) the peak-hour travel time is between 7-8 a.m. and 5-6 p.m.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1986/1097/1097-005.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=SPECIAL-PURPOSE+TRAVEL+SURVEYS&author=B.+Norris&author=G.+Shunk&publication_year=1986
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309041171
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Transportation Data and Information Systems. 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
• Authors:
  • Norris, Bahar B
  • Shunk, Gordon A
• Conference:
  • 65th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia, United States
  • Date: 1986-1-13 to 1986-1-16
• Publication Date: 1986

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Pagination: pp 20-22
• Monograph Title: Innovations in travel survey methods
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 1097
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data collection; Metropolitan areas; Peak periods; Surveys; Travel; Travel time; Trip length; Trip purpose; Vehicle occupancy; Work trips
• Uncontrolled Terms: Nonwork trips
• Old TRIS Terms: Special purpose
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00472258
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309041171
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 31 1987 12:00AM