A Transportation Perspective on Space-Time Patterns of Visitor Populations This study investigated the impact of transport mode choice, personal and household attributes, and the characteristics of residential environments on the diurnal variations on weekdays in visitor populations in different types of municipality in The Netherlands. The underlying reason for undertaking this study was the lack of current research into the influence of urban form and transport mode characteristics on the presence of visitor populations in particular time periods and municipalities. The analysis covers eight time periods, six types of municipality, and three visiting purposes, and draws on data from a sub sample of the 1998 Netherlands National Travel Survey. Multinomial logistic regression modelling was applied to determine the relative importance of various characteristics of visitors on their presence in a particular time period and type of municipality. The characteristics most capable of explaining the presence of visitor populations proved to be gender, age, employment status, car ownership, household size, transport mode choice, and residential environment. An understanding of the effects of these characteristics should inform transport policy so that it is capable of responding adequately to the space-time activity patterns of human behaviour (demand and supply), supporting the functioning of places, and increasing the use of environmentally friendly transport modes. (Author/publisher)
Abstract