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TCRP H-13B [Completed]
Trends in Single-Occupant Vehicles and Vehicle Miles of Travel Growth in the United States
| Project Data |
| Funds: |
$125,000 |
| Research Agency: |
Charles River Associates, Inc. |
| Principal Investigator: |
Michael Kemp |
| Effective Date: |
4/16/1996 |
| Completion Date: |
10/16/1997 |
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The research team has completed this project and submitted the final report to the TCRP panel. The panel has accepted the report, which is available as TCRP Web Document 5: Trends in Single Occupant Vehicle and Vehicle Miles of Travel Growth in the United States. This project also resulted in TCRP Research Results Digest 30.
This project focused on travel trends and projections, fuel consumption, and the vehicular-emissions component of environmental quality. That is, it concentrated on the most direct, near-term implications of the trends in mode choice and private-vehicle occupancy levels. Continued growth of single-occupant-vehicle travel and vehicle miles of travel will have escalating negative consequences for U.S. society. Documentation of the current use, trends, effects, and consequences will provide helpful information in assessing needs and goals for future U.S. transportation policy formulation.
To be most relevant to the transit community, the study focused attention on those market situations in which transit is already a viable, cost-effective alternative to lower-occupancy modes, primarily commute trips within central areas or between the suburbs and central areas. Most of the existing studies of trends in commuting mode shares have been primarily descriptive in nature, as distinct from analytical. An objective of this project was to gain a stronger quantitative understanding of the factors that have been affecting the dynamics of commuter mode choices and vehicle-occupancy levels in the United States over the last 20 to 30 years and to use this improved understanding to examine and comment on the potential efficacy of policies specifically designed to increase transit ridership, to increase average vehicle occupancy, or both.
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