THE THEORY OF TRAVEL DEMAND

The paper briefly reviews in 'conceptual order' developments in methods of estimating demand functions that have occurred in the last 15 years. Advances have taken place both in modelling the economic theory and in the measurement of parameters involved in the actual estimation. The most fundamental change was the recognition that travel decisions emerge from individuals' optimising behaviour. Travel services can also be characterised by their attributes. The traveller is more concerned with the quality of services offered rather than their number. The author describes methods of deriving the utility function giving a theoretical basis for the 'value of time' vital to the analysis of questions of modal split. Methods of determining the probability of a particular travel choice given several alternatives are based on stochastic ability functions from which forecasts of travel demand may be made from disaggregated household survey data. Advantages of the methods are discussed; areas requiring further research are indicated. /TRRL/

• Corporate Authors:

  Pergamon Press, Incorporated

  Maxwell House, Fairview Park
  Elmsford, NY  United States  10523
• Authors:
  • Quandt, R E
• Publication Date: 1976-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 411-413
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research /UK/
  • Volume: 10
  • Issue Number: 6
  • Publisher: Pergamon Press, Incorporated

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Choice models; Costs; Decision making; Demand; Economic efficiency; Economics; Estimating; Evaluation and assessment; Forecasting; Human factors; Mathematical models; Modal split; Present value; Transportation modes; Travel; Travel demand; Travel time; Trip length
• Uncontrolled Terms: Efficiency; Models; Selection; Value
• ITRD Terms: 224: Cost; 2248: Decision process; 285: Demand (econ); 255: Economics; 5911: Efficiency; 9020: Evaluation (assessment); 132: Forecast; 2257: Human factor; 698: Journey; 697: Journey time; 6473: Mathematical model; 675: Modal split; 9072: Selection
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; I71: Traffic Theory;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00159728
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Report/Paper Numbers: Analytic
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 29 1978 12:00AM