Investigation of commuting and non-commuting travel features for the popularization of public transportation system

The increasing travel demands and the growing diversity of trip purposes in megacities are placing more pressure on the urban transportation system, and there is an urgent need to popularize public transportation and control the exploding increase in travels by private cars. In order to enhance the competence of public transportation and establish a balance among various travel modes in megacities, as a highlight example, Beijing residents’ commuting and non-commuting travel features has been investigated focusing on the number of trips per capita per day, trip purposes, travel modes and proportion of commuting and non-commuting travels in public transportation. To better understand the current transportation situation and the changes of travel patterns in Beijing, corresponding data of New York, Hong Kong and London are comparatively studied. It is found that the per capita number of trips in Beijing has dramatically increased, and comparative analyses with the most developed cities shows that in metropolises with mature transportation system, commuting and non-commuting travel relies a great deal on public transportation. It is recommended that the improvement of the public transportation system should be put into top priority in such megacities intelligent transportation planning and development in order to satisfy the increasing travel demands of Beijing residents, especially non-commuting demands that have long been overlooked.