Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

A Descriptive Model of Nonwork Travel Frederick P. Stutz* There is a need to understand individuals' decisions to travel within the city, other than journeys to work. The spatial and temporal irregularity of such travel and the many influences upon it make detection of patterns difficult. Recent models of human movement involving decisions by individuals have focused primarily on migration and residential relocation.1 However, many concepts employed in these models can also be used to explain intraurban travel. A general model of the repetitive selection of destinations by an individual has not been articulated. Current aggregate-level (including gravity) models, though predictive in the short run, do not reveal individual decision-making processes which produce spatial patterns; consequently, they cannot account for observed deviations from their predictions.2 Additionally, how individuals learn about and perceive destinations, and how they actually arrive at their travel decisions, are not clear. Another basic reason for this inquiry is the importance of understanding human movements in response 0 Dr. Stutz is Professor of Geography at San Diego State University, San Diego 92182. Acknowledgment is made of the authors who contributed to the wealth of literature reviewed here which provided the material from which this paper was drawn. 1L. A. Brown and E. G. Moore, "The Intra-Urban Migration Process: A Perspective," Geografiska Annaler, Series B, Vol. 52B (1970), pp. 1-13. See also S. M. Golant, "Adjustment Process in a System: A Behavioral Model of Human Movement," Geographical Analysis, Vol. 3 (1971), pp. 203-220. 2 For a bibliography of some of these aggregate level models see, for example , W. R. Black and F. Horton, A Bibliography of Selected Research on Network and Urban Transportation Relevant to Current Transportation Geography Research, Research Report 28 (Evanston: Northwestern University, Department of Geography, 1968), especially pp. 31-44; and Highway Research Board, Highway Research Record 165: Origin and Destination Advances in Transportation Planning (Washington, D.C.: National Research Council, 1967). 89 90ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS to urban stimuli. Such knowledge may contribute to the better placement of services, thus reducing aggregate travel and generally assisting in urban planning.3 In the approach used here, the tripmaker's rational intentions are considered to be limited by personal values, past experiences, and perceptions of space and opportunities in the environment.4 In urban perception studies man frequently has been viewed as a subjective being whose perceptions and decisions are in part summarized by concepts such as place utility, action space, mental maps, search behavior, and the learning process.5 These concepts have been drawn upon heavily in this paper. The model deals primarily 3 For references on human movement and facility location see H. S. Perloff, "New Towns in Town," Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Vol. 32 (1966), pp. 155-160. Research centered on reduction of total travel by localizing interaction can be found in A. Spilhaus, "The Experimental City," Daedalus, Vol. 96 (1967), pp. 1129-1141; and F. P. Stutz, "Interactance Communities: Transportation's Role in Urban Social Geography," Proceedings of the Associa-^ tion of American Geographers, Vol. 5 (1973), pp. 251-261. Work on the planned growth of cities vis-a-vis human travel behavior is increasing in volume. See B. J. Berry and J. Meltzer, eds., Goals for Urban America (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1967); B. Harris, "The City of the Future: The Problem of Optimal Design," Papers and Proceedings of the Regional Science Association, Vol. 19 (1967), pp. 185-195; D. Appleyard, "Styles and Methods of Structuring a City," Environment and Behavior, Vol. 2 (1970), pp. 101-109; and F. P. Stutz, Social Transportation, Resource Paper No. 28 (Washington, D.C.: Association of American Geographers, 1976), especially Chapter 5. 4 The concept of intended rationality was initially developed by H. A. Simon, Models of Man (New York: John Wiley, 1967). It has since been used, for example, in J. Wolpert, "Behavioral Aspects of the Decision to Migrate," Papers and Proceedings of the Regional Science Association, Vol. 5 (1965), pp. 159-169; M. E. Hurst, "The Structure of Movement and Household Travel Behavior," Urban Studies, Vol. 6 (1969), pp. 70-82; and M. E. Hurst, A Geography of Economic Behavior (Belmont, California...