Travel behaviour. Spatial patterns, congestion and modelling

Book abstract:

Congestion is good for you! Well so might indigestion be if it reduces your appetite temporarily and helps you to shed those extra pounds you are carrying. This might not be an accurate paraphrase of arguments proposed in this volume but it does reflect the non-traditional approaches presented by the authors.

Organised in four parts, this volume brings together papers from a pan-European list of contributors. Part 1 addresses mobility and travel patterns. It analyses the interaction between housing and mobility, between infrastructure and mobility and between parking and mobility. Part 2 explores the diverse range of relationships between telecommunication and travel, especially travel to work, incorporating an empirical study on long-distance telephone calls. Congestion, the major issue, is the focus of part 3 and the non-traditional approach mentioned is evident in this section; we should not get rid of congestion, we should keep some because some congestion is good for the system. The discussion ranges over several aspects of congestion on a European-wide scale and evaluates traffic-calming measures, the consequences of urban sprawl and its impact on environment and social sustainability. Part 4 continues in this innovative style presenting new approaches to modelling behavioural responses including a conceptual model of households' activity-scheduling process, based on empirical evidence gathered through a CHASE (Computerised Household Activity Scheduling Elicitor) survey. The work closes with some questions surrounding the modelling of personal reactions to employment and residential relocations.

The volume will interest students, scholars policymakers and practitioners in the fields of transport economics, urban and regional planning, and behavioural sciences.

Eliahu Stern is Professor of Geography and Environmental Development at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.

Ilan Salomon is Professor of Geography and Transport Planning in the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Piet H.L. Bovy is Professor of Transport Planning at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.

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