Excess travelling—what does it mean? New definition and a case study of excess commuters in Tyne and Wear, UK

[摘要] ObjectiveThis paper has four main aims. Firstly, to undertake a critical review of existing definitions of excess travel focused on travel to work and hence to present a new definition which takes account of important developments in the public transport literature. This is used as the basis to identify whether excess travellers exist in the journey to work context and to identify differences between excess commuters and non-excess travellers.OverviewThis is undertaken using two different methodologies of sample selection and analysis: innovative sample selection using GIS to identify hotspots is compared with destination sampling and for analysis the use of time and cost calculations are compared with generalised cost.ResultsThe results show that a small number of excess commuters do exist and that whilst these travellers admit to a variety of benefits they can get from travel, most of them are excess travelling voluntarily with many factors are influencing their travel choices.ConclusionApplication of this research is that the better understanding of excess travel phenomenon in daily commute will allow for exploring public transport providers’ (PTP) policy to encourage sustainable transport patterns of commuting by meeting travellers’ expectations and, in the long run, marketing excess travel time into activity time what potentially might create extra revenue for PTP.

[发布日期] 2010-04-13

[关键词] Excess travelling;Generalised cost;Excess traveller