The Influence of Transport Network of a City on Travel Patterns - Essay Example

 «The influence of the form, structure and transport network of a city on individual travel patterns» Introduction This essay will discuss the extent to which the form and structure of the city, along with its transport network influences individual travel patterns. The different types of areas within metropolitan Perth will also be taken into consideration. Due to the fact that the size of a city correlates with its density, the densest cities tend to also be the largest cities, which will in turn mean that people living in such a city are expected to embark on longer commutes. According to Brindle, “there is a small but significant relationship between residential density and car ownership: a large increase in residential density is associated with a small decrease in car ownership. It can also be deducted that the primary determinants of car ownership in a home include the size of the household, income, and the number of workers per household. Transit availability is also a significant factoring determining car ownership.” (Brindle R 2003) Recent research shows that people’s travel behavior is related to certain characteristics of the built environment. This kind of travel behavior which includes trip-making frequency, distance and time traveled have been studied for a variety of land use patterns, street networks and streetscape design features. Factors which affect people’s travel patterns Humans are naturally built to move around and travel. As soon as a person starts growing and has the strength, the person begins to go to various destinations and starts crawling around the house or running around, or walking to a friend’s house. As adults we frequently hurry to vehicles to go off somewhere. According to their age and other socio-demographic factors, people travel to various places by many modes. As it is though, the environment in which we currently live is planned for and traditionally suited to automobile travel. “This narrow transportation planning vision compromises all of our travel decisions, but increasingly so for children and the caregivers who must provide them transportation to their important activities such as education and social events.” (Banister D 1995) Although studies carried out by cognitive mapping researchers point to a connection between spatial learning, and travel patterns, not much can be concluded about the manner in which existing transportation infrastructures affect peoples travel patterns and route selection. Recent research suggests that transportation infrastructure and modal networks such as transit routes, sidewalks, local streets, bike lanes, freeway networks and roads do have effects on the travel behavior and the development of cognitive maps. “The hierarchical nature of both transportation networks and land use systems in an urban environment can affect the cognitive mapping process. In general, the more significant particular pathway or landmark is to an individual’s navigation, the more it will dominate the cognitive map. The hierarchies of pathways in a region, such as highway and freeway segments dominating arterial and main roads, which in turn dominate local community and neighborhood street systems, contribute to the hierarchical organization of cognitive maps.” (Barton H, Grant M & Guise R 2003) Familiarity with city structures, specific experience of a given locality in the city, and a general familiarity with the road hierarchy, signage, and traffic also affect peoples travel patterns. People who made use of different modes of transportation and travel tend to develop different degrees of familiarity with each transport system. This shows that individuals, who use different transportation networks, will understand the same urban environment from differing perspectives. For example automobile users and transit users, will understand a given city in very different ways. The impact of differences in socio-demographics on personal travel behavior Individuals generate extremely complex travel-activity patterns as they participate in daily activities at different times and in different locations many researchers have conceptualized this observed behavior patterns as the outcome of choices made within constraints. The preferred activity choices utility maximization is employed. Maintenance of an individuals schedule is the key service, this helps activities to be scheduled, the individuals all have an agenda and all negotiate with other individuals to schedule social activities more especially negotiating about participants, location and time. Individuals update their state after participating in an activity and this depends on their satisfaction with their activity and no doubt individuals will come across new people as a result of these activities Another important service happens to be the maintenance of a personal network because just as their activities are influenced by their social network, their network in turn is influenced by their activity participation; individuals may visit or learn about new locations, they will also keep track of these locations they are familiar with, they will likely share them with others which is a form of influence Interaction between agents is an important component of agent- based applications. “Agents have agenda, interact and negotiate with others to schedule social activities and it includes participants, locations and time, agents interactions have several components, the negotiation set (the possible proposal) strategies, a rule to determine that the interaction is complete.” (Barton H, Grant M & Guise R 2003) Banister D (2002) explains three methods for dealing with issues in multi-issue negotiation: all issues discussed together, issues discussed separately or issues discussed one after the other. It has been shown that proposing complete deals at each step is computationally more complex because it has such advantage as pare to optimality (Banister D 2002). For the negotiation set, list of activity pattern has been developed including the activity purpose and location as well as indication of which acquaintances are likely to be involved and when interacting with colleagues likely during the week while weekend is for family visit. In a model, for determining individual travel patterns, it is quite difficult to decide issues independently e.g. the activity is likely to determine time, location etc and the order they should be discussed, should the activity or the location be decided first? However the choices sets for certain issues are decided independently. The protocol proceeds as follows the host proposes an activity to one or more of its acquaintances e.g. time and location could be there the respondent gives possible days and time they will be available, the host adjust the time to make it convenient for many to be available the respondent suggest location, the host creates intersection amongst those received, the host creates list of potential activities, the respondent ranks them the host determines a best activity based on every one’s ranking and informs respondent of the details The effects of urban form and structure on personal travel behavior The relationship between city structure and travel behavior has been extensively researched by urban economists, geographers, and city planners. There has been a steady increase in the rate of car ownership and use in the twentieth century. There also seems to have been a steady decline in the use of transit and other modes, and the decentralization of both population and employment. “Trends in travel and land use have complimented and re-enforced one another: growing car ownership generated demand for highways, development of the highway system changed accessibility patterns, and population and jobs responded to these new patterns of accessibility.” (Cervero R 1997). From a broad perspective, city form, structure, land use and transportation trends are quite closely related. “However, the historical record does not necessarily provide useful evidence for understanding land use and transportation at a single point in time, and the empirical research on relationships between daily travel and land use characteristics is far less clear. Metropolitan Size and Density Extensive research has been conducted on the relationship between metropolitan density and modal split, commute trip length and total automobile travel.” (Newman and Kenworthy 1999) The effects of various transport networks and service patterns on personal travel behavior. The Personal Travel behavior of various individuals is affected by transportation network and service pattern in a city. This personal travel behavior which includes both the short-term and long-term travel choices of individuals in the city constitutes some central elements like car ownership and season tickets for public transportation, as well as destination, mode, activity and choice of location. Going by recent research and literature, there hasn’t been any consensus reached about the effects of city spatial structure on personal travel behavior. Generally, there are differing opinions about this. Some studies suggest that the impact of transportation network and service pattern on personal travel behavior is rather small (Bagley, M.N. and P.L. Mokhtarian 2000). Some other studies lean towards the conclusion that at least some variables are dependent on the transportation network, spatial structure and service pattern obtainable in the city. Travel behavior is also affected by accessibility of facilities. This also goes to show the efforts of the surrounding residential area on individual travel behavior. If a person is able to reach a range of facilities within walking distance, then the probability of a locally oriented travel behavior with smaller distances will increase, as well as increased number of walking trips Travel is derived from activities that involve people participating in things such as school, work, sport, shopping, social events leisure. “Activities that are non-discretionary such as work and school can be explained in part by the traveler’s socio-demographic characteristics and generalized travel cost.” (Banister D 2002). Other things not easily predictable are long term decisions such as moving to a particular town, participating in other activities etc, the reported purpose for a large number of trips are social and leisure ranging from 25 to 40% for various countries. Interest people in activities participation is as well driven by our changing use of information communication technology, the need for physically visiting places is drastically reduced by the use of internet for activities such as banking, shopping and participating in online communication or conversation and in overall, it affects people’s travel behaviors. People could change their activity schedules and their transport plans on the fly as a result of receiving information via a mobile phone whilst traveling or participating in an activity outside the home. A graphic representation of individuals and their relationship could be seen in social network, if these social networks are well understood it will lead to a better prediction of social activity schedules and forecast of travel patterns and demand for urban facilities more especially those that have to do with social and leisure activities. The understanding of these social networks comes in handy in influencing the urban design of residential areas and public spaces in order to encourage participation in social leisure activities in local communities. Trip destination is determined by the members of one’s social network because that is where the social activities go towards. Barton H, Grant M & Guise R (2003) defined homophile as principle that contact between similar people occurs at a higher rate than among dissimilar people, some of the attributes used as similar measures includes age, social class, occupation, abilities etc. distance plays a key role in the maintenance of relationships. The authors claim that the most basic source of homophily is space because according to him “we are more likely to have contact with those who are closer to us in geographic distance than those who are distant”. People influence each other by providing information or observing behavior e.g. a friend tells you about a barbing saloon and you wish to go get a haircut there. Other factors that indirectly influence travel behaviors includes moving closer to one’s workplace, family or choice of vehicle. Greater proportion of travel has to do with social/leisure purposes; there is every need to understand the reason behind these. Agent based modeling is commonly used for applications where the behavior and intentions of heterogeneous individuals as well interactions between individuals is required. Lists of attributes have been presented by Barton H, Grant M & Guise R that systems should possess in order for agent based modeling to be considered include; relationship form and dissolve, agents have dynamic relationship with other agents, agents have a spatial component to their behaviors and interactions . These are complex relationships and interactions between individuals and the individual’s situated ness in an urban environment, each agent will have some level of satisfaction and will derive utility from sharing objectives, if along the line they are not satisfied with this current situation, then they will try to change it. The same applies to their involvement in the community, it depends on their needs The environment has a network representation derived from the actual road network. These links contain attributes for the actual distance and ideas of travel times for different modes. Nodes exist at a point in space and mostly contain location that represent where joint activities take place or can be undertaken; there are different types of location and each type has a set of attributes, the major distinction between private and public residence (e.g. museums, parks, restaurants, gyms etc) they have opening hours Personal social network defines each person’s acquaintances, each pair has a type of relationship (e.g. friend, work etc) and can also tell how long they have seen each other, this model also contain neighborhood, here groups are formal and informal clubs that the individual is a member of e.g. special interest clubs, sports club etc, here the individual is effectively connected to many people, some connections may remain as friends even when the individual has left the club, the neighborhood is based on the home location of the individual. When considering proposing or participating in an activity, the agent’s time availability, the time since they last saw the other agent, the social class balance between them and the satisfaction derived from their last encounter are taken into account. Works Cited Bagley, M.N. and P.L. Mokhtarian (2000) The impact of residential neighborhood type on travel behavior: A structural equations modeling approach. Gramado Barton H, Grant M & Guise R 2003, Shaping Neighborhoods: A Guide for Health, Sustainability and Vitality, Spon Press, London. Banister D (2002) Transport Planning. Spon Press, London 2nd Edition Banister D (ed) (1995) Transport & Urban Development. Spon England 388TRA Brindle R 2003, 'Kicking the habit (Part 2): What are the real options for reducing 'Car Dependence'?' Road & Transport Research, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 34-40. Cervero R (1997) Paradigm shift: from automobility to accessibility planning. Urban Futures Vol 22Transport Planning Newman, P. and Kenworthy, J. (1999) Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Read More