Kristina Marie Currans

Household Travel Surveys in Context-Based Approach for Adjusting ITE Trip Generation Rates in Urban Contexts

With household travel surveys (HTSs) to produce a regional-scale policy model, this research develops a methodology for predicting context-based vehicle-trip reductions applied to ITEs Trip Generation Handbook at a site-level development. This methodology may be used as a supplement to ITE trip generation rates, providing justification to vehicle-trip reductions based on known contextual vehicle mode splits. With the 2006 HTS of the Puget Sound Regional Council, Washington State, non-home-based trip ends were selected, and common built environment measures were extracted. A clustering analysis was then applied to all trip ends to determine clustered groups or contexts. With contexts, sociodemographic characteristics, and trip characteristics as model variables, a binary logistic model was developed to predict the mode split. Mode splits were then calculated for all context types (Type A through Type H) with the use of average built environment, sociodemographic characteristics, and trip characteristics variables. External establishment survey rates and mode splits, published from reports in California, were then used to verify the prediction power of the model on the basis of the type of establishments context. For each establishment survey, the same built environment measures were extracted, and the location was classified into contexts with a linear discriminate analysis. In general, mode splits predicted across contexts showed variation expected for areas with greater residential or employment density, land use mix, and connectivity. Establishment data showed that predicted values fell within the observed range or fell on the conservative side of estimation. Future applications of this research are discussed.

Consumer behavior and travel mode: An exploration of restaurant, drinking establishment, and convenience store patrons

ABSTRACT Many cities are making investments in nonautomobile infrastructure, but few rigorous studies have examined the implications of potential modes shifts on local businesses. This article examines the relationship between mode of access, consumer spending, and frequency of patronage at 78 restaurants, drinking establishments, and convenience stores in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. Multiple regression models were estimated to investigate the factors influencing customer expenditures per trip. Mode choice was not a significant predictor of spending per trip, and nonautomobile customers were more frequent patrons, on average, than customers who arrived via automobile. Although limited to the three land-uses studies, findings of this analysis do not support the notion that customers who arrive by automobile are more competitive consumers than those traveling by other modes, and build support for the notion that more environmentally sustainable transportation modes are also economically viable.

Evolving ITE Trip Generation Handbook: Proposal for Collecting Multimodal, Multicontext, Establishment-Level Data

This paper outlines a new perspective on data collection to inform site-level trip generation studies with amendments to ITEs Trip Generation Handbook in mind. The data collection proposed here is informed by the authors’ experiences in a study that aimed to adjust trip generation rates for an urban context. In this study, a consistent, reliable method for adjusting ITEs trip generation rates to account for increased non-automobile travel in different urban contexts was developed. On the basis of these experiences, the design presented here proposes more emphasis on collecting information on person counts and on how those person trips are distributed across various modes, including walking, cycling, and transit. This paper advocates a move from the vehicle-based counts used historically in these studies to a focus on how new development affects all users of transportation systems.

Assessing the importance of housing, accessibility, and transportation characteristics on stated neighbourhood preference

ABSTRACT Beyond socioeconomic circumstance, residential location decisions are also predicated on many housing, transportation, and accessibility characteristics. Consequently, greater insight is needed on how these myriad characteristics are valued by individuals and connected to their neighbourhood preference to inform planners and decision makers concerned with urban growth patterns. Unfortunately, forecasting methods commonly lack the specificity needed to recognize how residential environment preferences influence future housing, land use, and transportation decisions. Often, these policy instruments rely exclusively on a set of observed socioeconomic characteristics to measure heterogeneity in revealed location decisions. Using stated preference data collected in Portland, Oregon, this study employed structural equation modelling techniques to examine the influence of these socioeconomic measures and latent constructs of rated single-family dwelling and non-automotive access importance on stated neighbourhood preference. Our studys findings suggest the importance placed on certain bundles of housing, transportation, and accessibility attributes, and not socioeconomic circumstance, directly affected neighbourhood preference.

Issues in Trip Generation Methods for Transportation Impact Estimation of Land Use Development: A Review and Discussion of the State-of-the-Art Approaches

As agencies develop more robust planning objectives for creating sustainable and livable communities, the research community has continued developing tools for estimating transportation impacts for site-level development review. This article provides a review of the state-of-the-art trip generation methods. We then offer a discussion about the consistency of approaches compared with theories of travel behavior and urban economics. The main objective is to identify the largest and potentially problematic gaps in methods available for practice in order to allow researchers, agencies, and practitioners to both be aware of these limitations and forge forward new innovations to solve these ongoing problems.