Regional Structure of Passenger Flows in Korea

Abstract

The social and economic changes and the development of transportation facilities have recently increased passenger flows by each transport mode. Passenger flows are more periodical than the flows of goods and information and are one of the important spatial flows in a socio-economic system.In disaggregated analysis of passenger flows, the modal approach is of significance, because the aspects of passenger flows are different individually in terms of travel time, cost, convenience of facilities, and the traveller's behavior and purpose.This paper aims (1) to clarify the phenomena of passenger flows by each mode (intercity bus, rail, expressway bus, and expressway passenger car), (2) to compare these modes, (3) to construct passenger traffic regions by total passenger flows (by the four modes) and (4) to clarify the characteristics of passenger traffic regions in Korea. Data used in this study come from the interzonal passenger O.D. survey (62×62) by each mode, conducted by the Ministry of Transportation in 1976. The number of zones by each mode is as follows: in the case of buses there are 62 zones, rail 49, expressway bus 28, and passenger car 25, respectively.The rates passenger-km by four modes takes of the 66% of total passenger-km, other modes are intracity bus, aviation and vessels in Korea. This study analyzed the proportion of the major passenger flows to total passenger flows by each mode, the traffic distribution by standardizing distance variable as in Johnston (1976), the total passenger flows by four modes by Q-mode factor analysis, and the explanation of the pattern for total passenger flows with characteristics in each zone by R-mode factor analysis and cluster analysis (weighted-pair group average method).The results are as follows:(1) In passenger flows, (a) the transportation system by intercity bus shows the urban/rural duality; (b) railway flows suggest northwestern and southeastern zones/northeastern and Southwestern Zones duality (Fig. 7); (c) passenger car flows indicate northwestern/southeastern zones duality in the distance exponents; (d) the major functionalr regions by expressway bus are four regions-the cores of these regions are the Seoul, Busan, Daejeon, and Daegu zones. Therefore, the Seoul zone shows the highest accessibility and the next highest is the Busan zone.(2) The major mode in passenger flows is intercity bus, and the combination of intercity bus and rail exists partially in two large urban zones and 13 other zones, so two kinds of transportation systems emerged with regard to the passenger flows in Korea. Regional center zones are the central zones of passenger flows by intercity bus. Major modes in the passenger flows between these regional center zones are rail and expressway bus. The passenger flows by expressway bus have an advantage over rail which had been the major mode in the past.(3) The pattern of total passenger flows (62×62 data matrix) by four modes delimited six passenger traffic regions by factor loadings and scores on each factor (Q-mode factor analysis): Gi-Ho passenger traffic region, Gangwon passenger traffic region, Yeongsue passenger traffic region, Gyeongbuk passenger traffic region, Jeonnam passenger traffic region, and Nambu passenger traffic region (Fig. 13). The boundaries of passenger traffic regions are made by the location of large urban zones and the pattern of the transportation network. And in six passenger traffic regions, Seoul is the major destination zone, so Seoul controls all passenger traffic regions. The Jeonnam passenger traffic region will be included in Gi-Ho passenger traffic region by the economic development of the Seoul zone in the future.(4) Subsequently, 18 variables were selected to clarify the characteristics of passenger flows for each zone (Tab. 1). The 18×62 data matrix was analyzed by R-mode factor analysis, and four factors with eigenvalues over 1.0 were extracted.