Prof. Dr. Kay W. Axhausen | Traffic and Transport Planning

Daily Travel Matrixes in Passenger Transportation

Knowledge of the transportation demand variation over the course of the day is an essential prerequisite for the planning and operation of traffic systems as well as the evaluation of infrastructural and political traffic measures. Strategies for managing traffic demand and influencing the times of the demand distribution are important instruments for attaining a high utilisation of the available capacities. To develop these strategies, the demand at the level of the cross-section load and for the origin vs. destination traffic matrix must be chronologically disaggregated. Therefore, an exact picture of the spatial and time structures of the location changes (origin-goal matrix) is required.

The essential goal of this investigation was to compile a precise hourly travel matrix for the four travel purposes under observation (commuter, commercial, shopping and leisure) in motorised individual transport and public transport from the existing national individual personal traffic model. The result was a 24-hour matrix showing each means of travel and the purpose of the trip. In total, 192 matrixes were generated. Because certain applications were only analysed for specific travel means matrixes (without travel purpose distribution), the travel purpose specific matrixes were also presented in aggregate form.