The corridorized concept of household shopping highway-travel behavior

This paper reports the results of a study conducted in Jefferson County, Alabama (coterminous with the Birmingham SMSA) to determine whether there is justification for the concept of a household travel behavior corridor. Specifically, the research was designed to yield at least partial answers to the following questions: (1) Is the concept of an inter-area travel behavior corridor for shopping activities justified? (2) What is the general shape of such a corridor? (3) Do gravity models function as satisfactory explanatory devices of consumer household shopping travel behavior? (4) Does shopping travel behavior within corridorized areas depict a rational cost-conscious process in obtaining goods and services? (5) Do demographic and economic variables explain shopping travel behavior within these corridorized areas? Basic findings were as follows: (1) The shopping travel behavior of households depicted a rational, cost-conscious approach to the process of obtaining merchandise; (2) Relationships to retail centers were isotropic in character, and retail functional hierarchies apparently were easily perceived by households; (3) Corridor formulations were realistic and will be useful for additional analysis; (4) Gravity formulations were of only limited usefulness in explaining the origins and destinations of shopping trips originating from the total area of analysis; (5) Demographic and economic variables did not adequately explain shopping travel behavior within the corridorized areas.