Development of walking trip rates for different land uses

Abstract

This paper aims to develop walking trip rates for different land uses in an urban area. Walking trip rates are developed for six identified land use categories, namely residential, commercial, institutional, recreational, transportation and religious. In conventional modeling processes, the number of trips made by a household is modeled in terms of household size, income, and other socio demographic variables; any effect of location, land use, or transportation service level is discounted. However, trip rates must vary with accessibility and some empirical studies have found that they do. In light of conflicting empirical results, and the obvious need for more truthful and policy-sensitive travel forecasts, this issue is revisited. It was found out from the literature that while methods for finding trip rates for motor vehicles are well established, there are not many established procedures for measuring and predicting trip rates for non-motorized trips, though some researchers have found trip rates for selected land uses, for households in particular. The independent effects of land use and accessibility variables on household trip rates are tested using data from house hold travel surveys and trip diaries. To collect data on travel behavior of the dwellers, household travel surveys and trip diaries were used. After developing the household travel survey form and trip diary form, a pilot study was carried out to finalize the survey forms. By analyzing these data along with road side surveys, trip rates were identified for the selected land uses. This is a unique attempt to develop walking trip rates for different types of land uses.