Trip linkages of urban railway commuters under time-space constraints: Some empirical observations

This paper aims at analyzing temporal and spatial constraints underlying rail commuters’ trip linkages, and examines the role of the terminal station where a commuter transfers lines or leaves. Using an empirical data set of the rail commuters who made a non-work stop in addition to a work stop, distributions of path types by rail line are presented and their spatial extension of stops for non-work activity are quantitatively measured. The analysis further examines relationships between the choice of a non-work stop location and the rail commuter’s trip pattern. The results provide strong evidence that non-work stops in the after-work paths tend to cluster around the commuting terminal as well as the work place zone.