Urban Travel in Texas: An Evaluation of Travel Surveys (1099-3F)

This report presents the principal results of the compilation of the data that were collected in travel surveys conducted in Amarillo, San Antonio, Brownsville, Sherman-Denison, and Tyler, Texas, during 1990 and 1991. The data from those surveys were edited and corrected prior to being compiled into a form usable in travel demand modeling. Data included in this report include recommended household trip production rates by trip purpose, recommended employee attraction rates by trip purpose, recommended employee attraction rates for selected special generators, commercial vehicle trip rates, and data on the travel characteristics of external travel for those surveyed urban areas. Where appropriate, comparisons were made between the urban areas surveyed to examine the transferability of the survey data. Household trip production rates for small urban areas were found to be transferable. Attraction rates required extensive adjustment to produce reasonable rates and problems were identified in those surveys which indicate a need for extensive research in those surveys and their methods. Most of the special generators surveyed were found to have significantly different attraction rates which warranted their treatment as special generators. Some were found to be marginal and did not necessarily warrant such treatment. The commercial vehicle trip rates produced by the commercial vehicle surveys appear reasonable. There was an unresolved issue concerning the number of those vehicles operating within urban areas, and total truck trips were not estimated. The results from the external station surveys indicate that external trips comprise a significant proportion of urban travel and more research is needed in the understanding of those trips for travel demand modeling.