This work builds on the prior work of NCST student Sean Neely to focus on travel behavior between non-metropolitan areas and large metropolitan centers, because of its impacts on quality of life, multimodal planning, and rural economies. This project studies travel from home locations in northern New England (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts, excluding the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Metropolitan Statistical Area), going to Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Data were collected in The Intercity Travel, Information, and Technology Survey Questionnaire conducted by the University of Vermont’s Transportation Research Center (UVM TRC) and the New England Transportation Institute (NETI), with funding from the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) NCST in May 2014. A total of 2560 valid survey responses were collected. Prior work by Neely developed basic mode choice models for these intercity trips but this second project will develop more advanced mode choice models using alternative specific variables including measures of air access using FAA datasets. Data in the survey also asked participants about a hypothetical trip to New York City and intercity mode availability was queried. The relative distribution of mode availability and its impact on mode choice and access will be evaluated. The lens of equity in access will govern this project.
