THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL HETEROGENEITY WITHIN URBAN TRAVEL CORRIDORS ON THE TRAVEL BEHAVIOR OF RESIDENTS

Results from behavioral investigations of urban travel indicate the importance of privacy as a personal construct that significantly affects the manner in which individuals traverse North American urban transportation networks. With an expectation of encountering social heterogeneity in travel, the privacy aspect becomes all the more important to the traveling public. It is hypothesized in this paper that social heterogeneity within urban travel corridors significantly reduces patronage of public transportation by residents of these corridors. A causal analysis of bus patronage in travel corridors of Columbus, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, Syracuse, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut results in the acceptance of the hypothesized relationship, and it points out a critical question that must be addressed if public transportation is to meet the desires of consumers of travel services.

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RONALD L. MITCHELSON, Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Georgia reveived his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. He is interested in transportation geography, urban transportation demand analysis, location theory, regional development, and behavioral methods.