The personal travel environment can be described in terms of such dimensions as: (1) Location; (2) Access to the central-place system of the region (Christaller, 1933); (3) Access to work, shopping and leisure facilities; (4) Provision of infrastructure facilities; (5) Public transport supply; (6) Settlement structure and density; and (7) Topography, but also in terms of certain configurations, such as suburban subdivision, urban blocks or detached house-settlements. As an outcome of this differentiation and of the functional separation in general, the individual environments offer different opportunities, with regards to work, shopping or leisure activities. This paper analyses the interactions between these spatial dimensions, the individual characteristics of the travellers and the observed travel behaviour. Travel behaviour - as understood here - is a complex web of long-term and short-term choices which results in the observed time-space traces. Central elements of this web are car ownership, mode choice, destination choice and the long term location choice. The aim of this paper is to detect spatial factors which determine or at least influence travel behaviour, especially mode choice.
Samenvatting