The concept of residential linkages has previously been proposed as the basis for a strategy for quantitatively estimating the community or social consequences of transportation projects. The objective of this paper is to present a method for empirically defining existing residential linkages and linkage patterns. It is suggested that linkage definition involves the analysis of two data sets: the activity patterns of the household and the set of destination points which the household defines as important. Activity patterns are determined by analyzing an average of 3-1/2 weeks of travel data for each of 35 households residing in skokie, illinois. Household interviews would be used to identify the set of destination points that the household defines as important. A discriminant iterations analysis is then used to refine the initial classification used by the household and to insure that the set of developed linkage definition criteria are uniformly applied to each activity pattern. It is concluded that the proposed analytical methodology could be operationally employed to define linkages as part of an effort to estimate the community impact of transportation projects.
Abstract