Analysing travel patterns for cultural land use.

It is well known that travel patterns are influenced by the land use system in urban areas. Different land uses influence in a different way travel patterns and more especially the choice of transport mode, the distance travelled, the number of daily trips made and the need to travel. Knowledge of travel patterns is essential to land use planners and also to transport planners in order to implement an efficient planning policy. Within the framework of this paper an analysis of the travel patterns for the Thessaloniki Concert Hall are presented and discussed. The Concert Hall opened on the 2nd of January 2000 and its auditorium has a total number of 1.500 places. A mix of developments characterizes the location where the Concert Hall is constructed and this fact significantly affects the accessibility level of the specific land use. The transport modes available for serving the area include private cars, taxi and public transport buses while walking is also an option to a certain extent. Congestion problems appear mainly during peak hours and the same applies in the case of parking problems. Facilities for pedestrians are rather inadequate to serve the demand in the area and this also affects travel patterns. For all these reasons the analysis of travel patterns in the case of Concert Hall is considered as a necessary step in order to design a series of measures for the relief of traffic and the provision of a safe environment for the pedestrians. Travel patterns are obtained through a questionnaire based survey. They are also asked to express their opinion about the level of services offered by public transport and the actions that need to be taken. The analysis of the travel patterns show, among others, that private cars actually constitute the main way of transport in the case of the Concert Hall despite public transport availability. Walking is an option for only a small portion of the visitors. On-street parking is a solution for a significant number of visitors despite the fact that organised off-street parking is available at a relatively short distance from the Concert Hall. Bus frequency seems to be the most important problem among all visitors and among the private car users. When analysing the public transport user, tariff seems to be the most important problem. For the covering abstract please see ITRD E135207.