Impacts of Multipurpose Trip-Making on Spatial Interaction and Retail Facility Size

Abstract

<p>This thesis directs attention towards the nature of intra-urban trip-making and shows that existing representations fail to encompass an important aspect of interaction, namely, multistop multipurpose trips. The results of an extensive travel diary survey from Hamilton are reported and they show that trip-making involves multistop multipurpose activity in at least 60% of the cases examined. The only travel type for which the simple single-stop single-purpose trip assumption is a reasonable approximation is for work trips. Shopping trips, in this study, and in previously reported studies involve multiple stops and purposes in as many as 74% of the cases. Important spatial and functional linkages are implied by this type of behaviour.</p> <p>A method of representing travel diary information on complex trip-making is devised, and this method is used to generalize existing models of spatial interaction. The properties of the generalized model are compared to those of existing models, and in particular the interdependence implied by the introduction of complex interaction is stressed. The results of incorporating interdepence are examined analytically and numerically, and it is shown that the new model provides a more realistic representation of interaction.</p> <p>An application of the model to some alternative development plans for the Hamilton area is made. In this application the model is used to determine the sizes of retail facilities in the city based on planned residential and employment distribution.</p>