Modeling Framework for Long-Distance Pleasure Travel Supply Analysis

The massive vehicle-miles and person-miles traveled on long distance trips have generated broad impacts on multiple aspects of the society. However, modeling long distance travel presents a large-scale problem with great complexity, and knowledge about long distance travel is an acknowledged incomplete piece compared to the intra-urban travel, which has been studied in adequate depth and multiple dimensions. One imperative issue is the scarcity of the supply-side information for long distance travel, which embraces the service quality of the transportation infrastructure and costs for competing traveling options. Focusing on the long distance pleasure travel over the national highways, this study proposes an innovative and comprehensive modeling framework to fill the data gap, as well as to gain knowledge and insights of distributive patterns of long distance pleasure travel at interregional level, using available data sources. Meanwhile, a novel impedance model is presented to incorporate both tangible (travel data) and intangible attributes (contextual data) in pleasure travel into the modeling framework. The case study further demonstrates the feasibility of the modeling framework and its capability of capturing long distance travelers’ behavior. The modeling framework also provides quantitative system-wide indicators and performance measures to facilitate decision making in transportation policies, investments, and operations.