Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
location theory (Alonso, 1964) have been widely used to analyse the transport
demand and route choice between trip origin and destinations at metropolitan
areas (for example, choosing a path with lowest travel cost or shortest
distance). The GIS analysis at this level typically focuses on the inter-zonal
interactions. For example, spatial interaction models specify an overall
governing relationship for flow between locations. The powerful visualization
and data manipulation capabilities of GIS permit transport data to be visually
explored to uncover spatial patterns and trends. GIS techniques that are
capable of tracking changes in the spatial dimension of transport behaviour
can help identify the ever varying nature of travel demand.
Individual Level
The aggregate analytical approaches are not recommended for analysing
the more complex transport processes at the very disaggregate level. This is
because the greater diversity of behaviours that exist at the lower levels of
observation need a variety of social behavioural theories to explain, rather than
using a simple spatial interaction formulation. At the micro-level scale,
research typically focuses on the fundamental units of human behaviour (an
individual, a household). This includes individual social/behavioural
geography, travel patterns and location and route decision choices and trip
chain (activity) patterns. Micro-level analysis became a major area of transport
geography because there was a greater variety of human behaviours and an
increased level of spatial variability in the urban transport systems.
The micro-level modelling perspective represents the activity-based
analysis at the highest possible level of disaggregation. It studies the
emergence of complex patterns from behaviour and the interactions at the
individual level — e.g. the location choice for an individual person. Such a
description of an individual's behaviour is often referred to as microeconomic
theory and discrete choice theory (McFadden, 1978). The actors in micro-level
analysis can be an individual or a household. The research methods for
transport activity at the micro-level are based on the theories and concepts of
behavioural geography (Golledge and Stimson, 1997). For example, micro-
simulation or agent based modelling, are used to simulate the transport choice
and processes at the level of the individual actors. Time geography
(Hagerstrand, 1970)approach describes how an individual's travel behaviour
and route choice vary according to the trip purpose, time, and the location
attributes of the neighbourhoods (Kwan, 1998). In comparison to spatial
