The Relation between Individual Characteristics of Residents and Their Outdoor Behavior Patterns in Nagoya City, with a Focus on the Influence of Social Area Structure

Abstract

In an effort to analyze human travel-activity patterns, this paper clarifies the effects of the individual characteristics of urban residents on their outdoor behavior patterns which contain two dimensions: their socio-demographics and their location within a city. Previous studies have investigated mainly the relationship between travel and socio-demographic factors, while few works examine the impact of location factors. Socio-demographics in themselves, however, depend on the location within a city, as earlier social area analysts have found. This paper, therefore, focuses on how social area structure influences outdoor behavior patterns.The outdoor behavior pattern is described by the chain of travel purposes in which the individual leaves his home and returns there again. The following are found to be the main patterns the residents follow and their percentages among all the outdoor behavior:1. Outdoor Discretionary Activity→Return Home (24%)2. Attending School→Return Home (22%)3. Attending Work→Return Home (22%)4. Outdoor Business Activity→Return Home (6%)5. Outdoor Discretionary Activity→Outdoor Discretionary Activity→Return Home (3%)6. Attending Work→Outdoor Business Activity→Return to Work Place→Return Home (2%)7. Attending Work→Outdoor Discretionary Activity→Return Home (2%)8. Attending Work→Outdoor Discretionary Activity→Return to Work Place→Return Home (1%)Fifteen percent of all residents never went out of their home all day, which is the ninth pattern.As the result of this analysis, it become clear that the socio-demographics and social area structures have strong impact on the generation and location of stops of outdoor behavior patterns, that is:(1) The commuting patterns are divided into two types: White-collar commuters, who reside mainly in the eastern area of Nagoya city, tend to perform multipurpose travel toward the city core (Patterns 6, 7, 8). Blue-collar commuters, residing in the western area, take the simple round trip between home and the nearer work place (Pattern 3).(2) In the discretionary activity patterns (Patterns 1, 5), most stops occur at areas near-by residents homes. All the same, the residents in the eastern area tend to engage in their activities at the city core during the course of multi-purpose travel, as well as in their commuting patterns.(3) Attending school pattern (Pattern 2) is performed by students and pupils. Because they are concentrated in suburban areas, the generation of this pattern is remarkable in the outer zone of a city.(4) Business activity pattern (Pattern 4) is performed mainly by the workers whose work places correspond to their own residences. They are concentrated in the urban core area, so that the pattern is distinctive there.(5) The ninth pattern is also conspicuous in the urban core area, because people who never went out of their home are mainly elderly or the jobless, and they are concentrated in the urban core area.In summary, the commuting patterns and the discretionary activity patterns were closely related to the sectoral pattern of urban social area structure, while the other outdoor behavior patterns reflected the concentric structure.