Rapid growth in suburban population over the past two decades has inevitably turned once lightly travelled rural roads into heavy-traffic highways that require considerable investment for upgrading. However, such a need was not recognised in time to develop suburban-oriented traffic management strategies, and unprecedented levels of suburban congestion resulted. Mobility improvement in suburbs has thus become one of the most pressing transportation issues. In response to increasing public concern, reports and articles have been produced to explore various short- and long-term strategies. However, one vital aspect, a fundamental understanding of suburban commuting behaviour, has not been adequately addressed in the transportation literature. An exploratory analysis is performed to characterise suburban commuting behaviour on the basis of surveys conducted at three suburban activity centers. A comparison of the 14 travel and socioeconomic variables was performed first, followed by a discrete estimation of their relations with suburban workers' trip-stop frequency behaviour. It has been found that suburban workers, even though from geographically different locations, reveal similar commuting patterns. The estimation results were further supported by a multivariate cluster analysis through which survey respondents from each location were classified into six groups of unique characteristics. Whereas each cluster of survey participants exhibits a similar pattern at these three locations, its shape varies substantially from the other five clusters. This confirms that in contending with suburban congestion different strategies should be developed to target different groups of suburban residents.
Abstract