Ruimpad : gidsen naar de toekomst.

The `Ruimpad' project has been initialized by the National Spatial Planning Agency (RPD) of the Dutch Department of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment and the Transport Research Centre (AVV) of the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management to develop long-term strategies for transportation networks, transportation systems, an spatial patterns for human transport in the year 2050. As a part of this project, Bureau Goudappel Coffeng (BGC) has investigated the activity and travel patterns of the current Dutch society. These patterns were summarized in a `translation matrix'. For this matrix, the Dutch population was divided into 31 segments, where the division was based on demographic and occupational characteristics. Travel patterns were reflected by so-called `home-out-home' tours, where `out' denotes a chain of one or more subsequent activities done not at home. The activities and chains of subsequent activities were divided into several mutually exclusive groups. The translation matrix contains the average numbers of home-out-home tours done per person per week for the different segments, where the tours were divided into the groups indicated above. By assuming a specific change in the number of people in the different segments, changes in averge travel behaviour of the population can be computed. It is also possible to make specific assumptions regarding the number of tours made. Because this study was based on existing data, it is not straightforward to make statements about activity patterns in 2050 of groups that are currently very small, but that are expected to expand in the future, for these are currently scarcely any data about these groups, which are called `guided groups'. For this reason, the effects of a number of future developments, such as increasing influence of information technology, can not be well predicted on the basis of the translation matrix of BGC. To be able to give a better prediction of future behaviour of the population, in this study, travel behaviour of a number of guided groups has been investigated.