Course Code: P15CV823 Course Title: URBAN TRANSPORT PLANNING

UNIT – II
Various transportation surveys - inventory of transport facilities. Trip generation: trip purpose – factors
affecting trip generation and attraction - category analysis - problems. 10 Hrs.
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Study Area

The first stage in the formulation of a transportation plan is to collect data on all factors that are likely to
influence travel pattern. This involves a number of surveys to have an inventory of existing travel pattern,
an inventory of existing transport facilities and an inventory of existing land use and economic activities.
This stage of the planning process includes large work and may take two years for completion. Cost
involved is also very high and hence it needs proper organization and careful planning.

The study area for which transportation facilities are being planned is first of all defined. Transportation
planning can be at national level, regional level or at urban level.

For planning at urban level, the study area should include the existing and potential continuously built-up
areas of the city.

The imaginary line representing the boundary of the study area is known as ‘external cordon’. The area
inside the external cordon line determines the travel pattern to a large extent.

The land-use pattern and the economic activities are studied and detailed survey is done by home
interview to determine the travel characteristics.

Area outside the external cordon line is studied to a lesser degree of detail.

Criteria for Selecting External Cordon Line for an Urban Transportation Study

It should be done carefully with due weightage to the following factors:

1) The external cordon line should circumscribe (include) all areas which are already built-up and those
area which are considered likely to be developed during the period of study.

2) The external cordon line should contain all areas of systematic daily life of the people oriented towards
the city centre and should in effect be the ‘commuter shed’

3) The external cordon line should be continuous and uniform in its course so that movements cross it
only once. The line should intersect roads where it is safe and convenient to carry out traffic surveys.

4) The external cordon line should be compatible with previous studies of area of studies planned for the
future.

Zoning

The defined study area is sub-divided into smaller areas called zones. The purpose of such sub-division is:
 a) To facilitate the spatial quantification of land-use.
b) To know the economic factors which influence the travel pattern.

The data collected on individual household basis cannot be conveniently considered and analysed unless
they are aggregated into small zones which yields the average characteristics of the individual
households.

Zones help in associating the origins and destinations of travel.

Zones within the study area are called internal zones and those outside the study area are called external
zones.

In large study projects, it is more convenient to divide the study area into sectors, which is sub-divided
into smaller zones. Zones can further be sub-divided into sub-zones depending upon land-use.

A convenient system of coding of the zones will be useful for the study. One such system is to divide the
study area into 9 sectors. The central sectors (CBD) is designated ‘0’ (zero), and the remaining eight are
designated 1 to 8 in clockwise direction/ manner. The prefix 9 is reserved for the external zones.

Each sector is sub-divided into 10 zones bearing numbers 0 to 9. Thus a system of three digits denotes a
sub-zone. A sub-zone bearing the number 481 belongs to sector 4 and to zone 8 in that sector and is sub-
zone 1 in that zone.

Following are the points to be kept in view when dividing the area into zones:

1) Land-use is the most important factor in establishing zones for a transportation survey. It is only when
the origin and destination zones reflect properly the land-use can traffic generated within the zones be
predicted, measured and quantified accurately. The pre-dominant land-use for establishing zones are:
residential, industrial, commercial, recreational, open space, shopping, etc.

2) The zones should have a homogeneous land-use so as to reflect accurately the associated trip-making
behaviour.

3) Anticipated changes in land-use should be considered when sub-diving the study area into zones.

4) The zones should not be too large to cause considerable errors in data. At the same time, they should
not be too small either, to cause difficulty in handling and analysing the data. As a general guide, a
population of 1000-3000 may be optimum for a small area and a population of 5000-10000 may be
optimum for a large area. In residential areas, the zones should accommodate roughly 1000 house-
holds.

5) The zones should preferably have regular geometric form for easily determining the centroid which
represents the origin and termination of travel.

6) Sectors should represent the catchment of trips generated on a primary route.

7) Zones must be compatible with screen lines and cordon lines.

8) Zone boundaries should preferably be water-sheds of trip making.

9) Natural or physical barriers such as canals, rivers, etc. can form convenient zone boundaries.

In addition to the external cordon lines, there may be a number of internal cordon lines arranged as
concentric rings to check the accuracy of survey data. Screen lines running through the study area are
established to check the accuracy of data collected from home interview surveys. Screen lines can be
conveniently located along physical or natural barriers having few crossing points. Examples of such
barriers are rivers, railway lines, canals, etc.

Basic Movements in Transportation Survey

The basic movements for which survey data are required are:

1) Internal to Internal
2) Internal to External
3) External to Internal
4) External to External

For large urban areas, the internal to internal travel is heavy whereas for small areas having a small
population (say less than 5000) the internal to internal travel is insignificant.

The internal to internal travel is best studied by the home interview technique with checks by screen-line
surveys.

The internal to external, external to internal and external to external travels can be studied by cordon
surveys.

The internal to external travel can also be surveyed by home interview technique.

Types of Surveys
The surveys can be carried to collect the data:

a) At the home.
b) During the trip.
c) At the destination end of trip

When data is collected at the home, the data can be wide-ranging and involves/cover/includes all the trips
made during a given period.

The data collected during the trip is necessarily of limited scope since the procedure yields data only on
the particular trip intercepted.
At the destination ends, the direct interview will be conducted which yields the demand for parking
facilities and on major traffic attractors such as factories, offices and commercial establishments.

Various Transportation Surveys

Following are some of the transportation surveys that are usually carried out:

1) Home interview surveys

2) Commercial vehicle surveys
3) Taxi surveys
4) Road side interview surveys
5) Post card questionnaire surveys
6) Registration number surveys
7) Tag surveys
8) Public transport surveys

Home Interview Survey

It is one of the most reliable types of surveys for collection of origin and destination data. This survey is
intended to yield data on the travel pattern of the residents of the house hold and the general
characteristics of the house hold influencing trip-making.

The information on travel pattern includes number of trips made, their origin and destination, purpose of
trip, travel mode, time of departure from origin and time of arrival at destination and so on.
The information on household characteristics includes type of dwelling unit, no. of residents, age, sex,
race, vehicle ownership, no. of drivers, family income and so on.

Based on these data it is possible to relate the amount of travel to household and zonal characteristics and
develop equations for trip generation rates.

A number of techniques are available for the home-interview survey they are:
a) Full interview technique
b) Home questionnaire technique

Full interview technique involves interviewing as many members of the household as possible and
directly recording all the information, whereas in home questionnaire technique, the interviewer collects
only details of the household characteristics, leaving forms for household residents to complete in regard
to travel information. The completed forms are collected after one day or two day by the interviewer.

The Full interview technique is more expensive and it may be possible to collect the needed information
only at the rate of 8 interviews per 8 hour day per interviewer. The home-questionnaire technique is
more speedy and it may be possible to cover about 20 households per day. Full interview technique yields
very accurate data, the same cannot be said for the home-questionnaire method.

The information collected from the home-interview survey is classified under two groups:
a) Household information
b) Journey data

Household information contains information such as address, size of household, age and sex structure of
household, earning members, occupation, place of work, number of motor vehicles owned, household
income, etc.

Journey data contains information on all journeys made during the previous 24 hour period, including the
origin and destination of journeys, purpose of trip, mode of travel, etc.

Commercial Vehicle Surveys

Commercial Vehicle Surveys are conducted to obtain information on journeys made by all commercial
vehicles based within the study area. The addresses of the vehicle operators/ drivers are obtained and they
are contacted. Forms are issued to drivers with a request that they need the particulars/details of all the
trips they would make.

Taxi Surveys
Large urban areas have a sizeable amount of travel by taxis. In such cases, a separate taxi survey is
necessary. The survey consists of issuing questionnaires/ log sheets to the taxi drivers and requesting
them to complete the same.

Road Side Interview Survey

It is one of the methods of carrying out a screen-line or cordon- survey. The road side interview survey
can be done either by directly interviewing drivers of the vehicles at selected survey points or by issuing
prepaid cards containing the questionnaire to all the drivers.

The survey points are selected along the junction of the cordon-line or screen-line with the roads. The
cordons may be in the form of circular rings, radial lines of rectangular grids.

For small towns (population <5000), single circular cordon at the periphery of the town should suffice.
The internal travel being light, the external cordon survey in this case will give the O-D data.

In case of medium sized cities (population range 5000-75,000). Two cordon lines are necessary, the
external cordon at the edge of the urban development and the internal cordon at the limits of the central
business district. Road side interviews at the intersection of roads with these two cordon lines should be
able, to fairly assess the patterns of travel in such cities.

For large cities, the cordon lines and screen lines may be more complicated. The home-interview
technique cannot be dispensed. Cordon line and screen line surveys by the road side interview technique
serve to check the accuracy of the home interview survey data.

For dual carriageways or roads with very little traffic, traffic in both directions is dealt simultaneously. In
other cases the traffic in two directions will be interviewed at different times.
If the survey covers most of the day it may be sufficient to interview traffic in one direction only and to
assume that the journeys in the opposite direction are the same as in the direction interviewed.
It is impractical to stop and interview all the vehicles. Hence sampling is necessary which depends on the
number of interviewers and traffic using the road.
Post-Card Questionnaire Survey
In this method, reply paid questionnaires are handed over to each of the drivers at the survey points and
requesting them to complete the information and return by post. The method avoids delay caused to the
drivers by the direct roadside interview method but suffer from the disadvantage that the response may
not be good. It is possible to get a good amount of information from this method. The method is simpler
and cheaper than other methods.

Registration Number Plate Surveys

This consists of noting the registration numbers of vehicles entering or leaving an area at survey points
located on the cordon line. By matching the registration numbers of vehicles at the points of entry and
exit from the area, one is enabled to identify two points on the paths of the vehicle.

Tags on Vehicles
In this method, at each point where the roads cross the cordon line, vehicles are stopped and a tag is
affixed, usually under a windscreen wiper.
The tags for different survey stations have different shapes and/or colour to identify the survey station.
The vehicles are stopped again at the exit points where the tags are removed. The times of entering and
leaving the area may be marked on the tags in order to enable the journey times to be determined.

Public Transport Surveys

In order to assess the number of bus passengers passing through an external cordon, the above survet is
done. This survey can be either by direct interview with the passengers or by issuing post-card
questionnaires.

Direct interview result in large delays and requires a large number of interviews. In order to minimize the
delays, the interviewer may enter the vehicle and carry out the interviews when the vehicle is in motion.

A post card questionnaire eliminates delays but results in poor response.

An external cordon rail survey can be carried out by interviewing the passengers on trains. Pre-paid
questionnaires may be distributed to persons residing at stations outside the survey area. These
questionnaires may also be collected at the stations inside the survey area.

Advantage
a) Survey work does not interfere with the traffic in any way.

Disadvantage
a) Large numbers of observers are needed.
b) Analysis of results is complicated.

Procedure
a) Area to be surveyed is defined and the roads intersecting the cordon line are identified.
b) At each survey point, one or two observers are stationed to record the data in each direction of travel.
If two observes are available at each point, one can call out the registration number of the vehicle and the
other can record. If actual times at entry and exit are noted, journey speed of the vehicles can also be
estimated/ calculated.
The procedure is cumbersome if done manually and hence the use of electronic computer is often sought.

Inventory of Transport Facilities

The inventory of existing transport facilities should be undertaken to identify the deficiencies in the
present system and the extent to which they need to be improved. The inventory consists of:

1) Inventory of streets forming the transport network

2) Traffic volume, composition, peak and off-peak
3) Studies on travel time by different modes
4) Inventory of public transport buses
5) Inventory of rail transport facilities
6) Parking inventory
7) Accident data

1) Inventory of Streets
An understanding of the extent and quality of the road network is very important to formulate plans for
the future. The inventory should cover details such as classification of the street system, length, cross-
sectional dimensions, type and condition of the surface, capacity, intersections, control devices,
structures, street furniture, etc.

2) Traffic Volume
Data pertaining to traffic volume and its composition will be needed to check on the survey data collected
by the home-interview and cordon surveys. The variation of the traffic volume over different hours of the
day, different days of the week and different months of the year is also needed.

3) Travel Time Studies

An estimate of travel times between different zones by various modes is necessary for transport planning.
Travel times are usually measured for the peak-hour conditions and non-peak hour conditions.

4) Inventory of public transport buses

The inventory of public transport buses includes information on the total number of buses, their capacity,
schedules, routes, operating speeds, terminals, number of passengers carried, economic picture of the
public transport system and the fare structure.

5) Inventory of Rail Transport Facilities

The inventory of rail transport facilities should include the length, capacity, schedules, operating speeds,
stations, number of passengers carried, economic picture of the rail transport undertaking and the fare
structure.
6) Parking Inventory
The parking inventory should collect information on the existing on-street and off-street parking facilities,
the parking demand and the utilization of existing facilities. Data on parking charges and the system used
for charging should also be collected.

7) Accident Data
Accident data over the past years will help to understand the nature and extent of the hazards inherent in
the present system and the need to improve the situation.

Trip Generation
The first phase of the transportation planning process deals with surveys, data collection and inventory.
The next phase is the analysis of the data so collected and building models to describe the mathematical
relationship that can be discerned in the trip-making behavior. The analysis and model building phase
starts with the step commonly known as trip generation.

Trip generation is a general term used in the transportation planning process to cover the field of
calculating the number of trip ends in a given area. The objective of the trip generation stage is to
understand the reasons behind the trip making behavior and to produce mathematical relationship to
synthesise the trip-making pattern on the basis of observed trips, land-use data and household
characteristics.

Trip Purpose
Trips are made for different purposes and a classification of trip by purpose is necessary. The following
are some of the important classes of trip purpose:
1) Work
2) School
3) Business
4) Social or recreational, sports
5) Others

The break-up of trips by purpose is normally done for the home based trips which represent nearly 80-
90% of the total trips.

Factors affecting trip generation and attraction

1) Income
2) Car ownership
3) Family size and composition
4) Land use characteristics
5) Distance of the zone from the town centre
6) Accessibility to public transport system and its efficiency
7) Employment opportunities
1) Income
Family income which represents its ability to pay for a journey affects the number of trips generated by a
household. A general trend is that the higher the income the higher is the trip generation rate.

2) Car ownership
A car represents easy mobility and hence a car owning household will generate more trips than a non-car-
owning household. By the same reasoning, the more cars there are in a household, the more the number of
trips generated. No of cars owned is itself related to the income of the family.

3) Family size and composition

The bigger the family, the more trips are likely to be generated. Apart from the size, the composition of
the family itself is important. For instance, if both the husband and wife are employed, the trips generated
will be more than when only the husband is employed. If there are many school-going children, the
number of school-purpose trips will be large. If some of the children are grown up and are employed, the
number of work-purpose trips will increase. The age structure of the family also governs the trip rates.
Old persons are not expected to generate as many trips as younger ones. The occupation of the family is
also known to influence the travel pattern.

4) Land Use Characteristics

Different land uses produce different trip rates. For example, a residential area with a high density of
dwellings can produce more trips than one with a low density of dwellings. On the other hand, low
density areas may represent dwellings of the affluent (wealthy) society, which may produce a large
number of private car trips. The rate able value of the welling and the type of the dwelling units affect the
trip generation rates. The most important assumption made in transportation planning is that the amount
of travel is dependent on land-use.

5) Distance of the zone from the town centre

The distance of the zone from the town centre is an important determinant of the amount of travel that
people might like to make to the town centre. The farther the town centre, the less the number of trips are
likely to be.

6) Accessibility to public transport system and its efficiency

The accessibility to a public transport system and its efficiency determine to some extent the desire of
persons to make trips. An easily accessible and efficient public transport system generates more trips.

7) Employment Opportunities
The employment potentiality of an industrial or shopping unit or an office establishment directly governs
the trip attraction rate. Similarly, another factor to which the trip attraction rate can be related is the floor
space in the premises of industries, shops and offices.

Category Analysis
Category analysis or cross-classification technique is a method developed by Wotton and Pick. It has
been used in transportation studies in U.K. It is based on determining the average response or average
value of the dependent variable for certain defined categories of the independent variables.
Assumptions

The technique is based on the following assumptions:

1) The household is the fundamental unit in the trip generation process, and most journeys begin or end
in response to the requirements of the family.

2) The trips generated by the household depend upon the characteristics of that household and its
location relative to its required facilities such as shops, school and work place.

3) Households with one set of characteristics generate different rates of trips from households with
other set of characteristics.

4) Only three factors are of prime importance in affecting the amount of travel a household produces:
car-ownership, income and household structure.

5) Within each of the above three factors, a limited number of ranges can be established so as to
describe the trip-generating capacity of a household by a limited number of categories.

6) Trip generation rates are stable over a time so long as factors external to the household are the same
as when the trips were first measured.

Categorisation of Households

Households are classified on the basis of three factors such as, car ownerships, income and household
structure. These are classified into different ranges as indicated below:

1) Car ownership: 3 levels (0 car, 1 car and more than 1 car)

2) Disposable Income – 6 classes:

a) < Rs. 50,000 p.a
b) Rs. 50,000 – Rs. 1,00,000 p.a.
c) Rs. 1,00,000 – Rs. 1,50,000 p.a.
d) Rs. 1,50,000 – Rs. 2,00,000 p.a.
e) Rs. 2,00,000 – Rs. 2,50,000 p.a.
f) > Rs. 2,50,000 p.a.

3) Household structure – 6 classes:

a) No employed residents and one non-employed adult
b) No employed residents and 2 or more non-employed adults
c) One employed resident and one or less non-employed adult
d) One employed resident and 2 or more non-employed adults
e) Two or more employed residents an one or less non-employed adult
f) Two or more employed residents and two or more non-employed adults.
The above system gives in all 3 x 6 x 6 = 108 categories.
In addition, it is also possible to consider 3 modes of travel such as self-driven car, public transport,
passenger in a car and 6 trip purposes (work, school, business, shopping, social-recreational and sport,
others). Thus we have 18 mode purpose combinations.

Advantages

1) The whole concept of household trip-making is simplified in this technique. The technique
categorises the household according to certain socio-economic characteristics and this appears
rational.

2) Unlike regression analysis technique, no mathematical relationship is derived between trip-making

and household characteristics. This takes away many of the statistical drawbacks of the regression
analysis.

3) Since data from the census can be used directly, it saves considerable effort, time and money spent
on home-interview survey.

4) The computations are relatively simpler.

5) Since disaggregate data are used, the technique simulates human behavior more realistically than the
zonal aggregation process normally employed in regression analysis.

Disadvantages

1) It is difficult to test the statistical significance of the various explanatory variables.

2) The technique normally makes use of studies in the past made elsewhere, with broad corrections.

3) New variables cannot be introduced at a future date.

4) Large samples are needed to assign trip rates to any one category.

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