CHOICE OF TRAVEL MODE FOR THE JOURNEY TO WORK-SOME FINDINGS

THE RESEARCH DESCRIBED IS AN ATTEMPT TO DEVELOP AND CALIBRATE A MODEL TO EXPLAIN, AND SUBSEQUENTLY TO PREDICT, THE CHOICE OF TRAVEL MODE OF CAR OWNERS ON THEIR JOURNEY TO WORK, IN TERMS OF FACTORS WHICH CAN BE DIRECTLY RELATED TO POLICY VARIABLES AND IN TERMS OF PLAUSIBLE HYPOTHESES ABOUT PEOPLE'S BEHAVIOR. A SAMPLE SURVEY WAS CONDUCTED OF PERSONS WORKING IN THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT OF LEEDS. WITH PREDOMINANTLY CORE-ORIENTED CITIES, LIKE LEEDS, THE DESTINATIONS OF JOURNEYS TO WORK ARE DETERMINED, SO THAT THE DISTRIBUTION SUBMODEL IS BY-PASSED. IN THE MODEL IT IS ASSUMED THAT THE DECISIONS TO TRAVEL, TO TRAVEL FOR A SPECIFIC PURPOSE, AND WHERE TO TRAVEL HAVE ALL BEEN MADE. PARAMETER ESTIMATES OF THE MODEL WERE CARRIED OUT BY THE TECHNIQUE OF DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS. IT IS SHOWN IN THE APPENDIX THAT A STRAIGHTFORWARD MULTIPLE REGRESSION APPROACH YIELDS EQUIVALENT RESULTS IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE. IT IS CONCLUDED THAT, AS A MEASURE OF RELATIVENESS OF TIME AND COST, RATIOS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY INFERIOR TO LOGS OF RATIOS AND DIFFERENCES & THAT DIFFERENCES ARE CONSISTENTLY BETTER THAN LOGS OF RATIOS IN BOTH THE CAR/BUS AND THE CAR/TRAIN SAMPLES, BUT BY AN AMOUNT SIGNIFICANT ONLY AT THE 10 PERCENT LEVEL. USING DIFFERENCES, IT IS CONCLUDED THAT OVERALL TRAVEL TIME DIFFERENCE, EXCESS TRAVEL TIME DIFFERENCE, COST DIFFERENCE, AND THE POSSIBILITY OF USE OF CAR AT WORK ARE ALL IMPORTANT IN INFLUENCING MODEL CHOICE. INCOME IS AN INSIGNIFICANT FACTOR UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF THIS STUDY. IT WAS ALSO FOUND THAT WALKING AND WAITING TIMES ARE WORTH BETWEEN TWO AND THREE TIMES IN-VEHICLE TIMES AND THAT AN AVERAGE VALUE OF TIME ON BOTH MODES LIES BETWEEN 21 PERCENT AND 25 PERCENT OF WAGE RATES. EXAMPLES OF APPLICATION OF THE RESULTS FOR PREDICTION AND PLANNING ARE GIVEN. /AUTHOR/