The effects of mixed land use on the household travel behavior: A case study of Agartala, Tripura

Abstract

In today’s time, there is a growing concern over managing the traffic on Indian roads. From smaller two or three-tier cities to big metropolitan cities, the traffic problem is prevalent. It is especially becoming more challenging day by day as there has been a vast shift of interest of people from public transit or non-motorized modes to private automobiles; the reason of this momentous change could be urbanization, economic growth of the country or the ease in the affordability of vehicle by an individual, nowadays. Recently, this concern has grabbed many researchers’ attention. From the pool of many possibilities, one solution could be to discourage the use of private automobiles through imposing some restrictions or providing such kind of neighborhood where a person feels constrained to use the private vehicle. There are plenty of studies available which have analyzed the correlation between land use parameters and trip length before; nonetheless, due to the peculiarity of land use development and mixed traffic conditions in India, it is not viable to implement those procedures without inculcating India’s characteristics. Through this study, we are making our best efforts, while keeping the Indian traits in mind, to find the impact of the built environment on the travel behavior of the people. Agartala capital of Tripura, a city in the northeastern part of India, has been selected for this case study. Models have been prepared with slightly modified indices, which encompass the anomaly of Indian land use development, for studying the effect of land use parameter in explaining the variability of trip length as well as the behavioral mode choice. The correlations unfolded through these models were found to be significant and could be used for planning of efficient urban transportation system. The modified indices, to no small extent, were satisfactory in explaining the pattern of the household travel behavior based on their neighborhood development.