The attraction of countryside sites

Abstract

The distribution of car trips to countryside sites, though primarily dependent upon accessibility, is also a function of the site attraction. This paper describes an attempt to assess attraction in numerical terms drawing upon techniques used by the geographer and the transportation planner. It is based on a behavioural model in which excursion rates and travel times of visitors to countryside sites were obtained by questionnaire surveys in the West Midlands region. A method is established for determining sequentially the relative attraction of pairs of sites through plotting excursion rate ratios and the respective travel time ratios for common visitor origins; therefrom, for a travel time ratio of unity, the relative excursion rates can be found. Further investigation suggested that site extensiveness contributes to attraction in proportion to the square root of the area. Relative intrinsic attractiveness—essentially land form and mantle—can be determined using a points scoring system. These two compone...