Estimating intrazonal trip distances in a Brazilian medium-sized city

Abstract

The objective of this study is to estimate average intrazonal trip distances in a medium-sized city. The analysis was based on an origin-destination (O/D) survey conducted in the city of São Carlos, Brazil. The urban area was subdivided several times, producing 471 study areas based on traffic analysis zones (TAZ). The geometrical characteristics of the zones that might influence the distances of intrazonal trips were identified. Numerical indicators of the selected geometrical patterns were compared with the average values of intrazonal trip distances to search for evidence of correlations between these variables. Two analytical approaches were explored: i) continuous and ii) discontinuous. In the first case, all trips were considered as a single dataset, whereas in the second dataset they were split into two subsets according to the area of the zones. The datasets with higher correlation were used to build global and individual models to estimate intrazonal trip distances. In the global models, walking, cycling, and auto trips were considered part of a common dataset. The three transport modes were separately taken in the stratified models. The values obtained from these models were then compared with the estimations of other models found in the literature. The results obtained from the discontinuous models provided satisfactory estimations of average intrazonal trip distances, at least in the context of the studied city.