Study of Work-Travel Related Behavior Using Principal Component Analysis

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to analyze work travel-related behavior through a set of variables relative to socio-economic class, urban environment and travel characteristics. The Principal Component Analysis was applied in a sample consisting of workers of the S ? o Paulo Metropolitan Area, based on the origin-destination home interview survey, carried out in 1997, in order to: 1) examine the interdependence between travel patterns and a set of socioeconomic and urban environment variables; 2) determine if the original database can be synthetized on components. The results enabled to observe relations between the individual’s socio-economic class and car usage, characteristics of urban environment and destination choices, as well as age and non-motorized travel mode choice. It is then concluded that the database can be adequately summarized in three components for subsequent analysis: 1) urban environment; 2) socio-economic class; and 3) family structure.