Urban Form, Socio-Demographics, Attitude and Activity Spaces: Using Household-Based Travel Diary Approach to Understand Travel and Activity Space Behaviors

Naila Sharmeen,Douglas Houston

doi:10.3390/urbansci4040069

Abstract

Very few studies have addressed the gap in literature by examining the travel and activity patterns of travelers in developing countries to inform future land use and socio-economic planning. The major purpose of this paper is to determine the factors related with travel and activity space patterns of residents in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Based on lessons learned from a pilot study, a full study was undertaken using artificial neural network and regression. A network analyst-based shortest path network with road network buffer activity space calculation measure was used in geographic information system. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to identify attitudinal factor dimensions. Calculated individual activity spaces were found to range from 0.08 to 10.13 square miles. Trip characteristics were found to be significant predictors of individual activity space. In case of household activity space, D variables (density, design, and destination accessibility) and household characteristics were found as the most significant. Perceived neighborhood amenities, car attachment, monetary concerns, transit preferences, perceived daily travel area and environmental concern were found to shape people’s perception. Weekend activity spaces were more compact than those for weekdays. Individual day-to-day variability was less during weekdays than on the weekend. Female and high-income respondents had smaller activity spaces.

Highlights

With an area of only 116.6 square miles, Dhaka Metropolitan Area (DMA) has a population of approximately 12.6 million people which makes Dhaka as one of the most densely populated cities of the world [1]
Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was needed before any primary data collection for research and IRB approval was taken from University of California, Irvine (UCI), whereas, as an exempt category of research, no such kind of approval is necessary in Bangladesh for primary data collection
Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was needed before any primary data collection for research and IRB approval was taken from University of California, Irvine (UCI), another vehicle ownership, it is almost like Dhanmondi

Summary

Introduction

With an area of only 116.6 square miles, Dhaka Metropolitan Area (DMA) has a population of approximately 12.6 million people which makes Dhaka as one of the most densely populated cities of the world [1]. A few gender-based studies tried to explore the travel/activity situation of Dhaka from spatial planning perspective [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] and very few of them focused on spatial/locational distribution of households. As per our knowledge this is the first study analyzing the existing travel behavior of the residents of Dhaka based on geographic distribution of household activities through calculating traveler’s activity space. This study was one of very few and was almost the first of its kind to explore activity and social pattern of women, gender relations and temporal changes in the activity spaces in Dhaka.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion