Research Report 268 Trip chaining: Understanding how New Zealanders link their travel

Published: 2005

There has been increasing interest by governments in New Zealand in replacing short car trips (<5 km) with trips using other more environmentally friendly modes, such as passenger transport, walking and cycling. However, discussion of the potential for changing short trips often misuses the available data, with the potential cited being based on trip “segments” (or legs), which often differ from what most people would consider as a “trip” or what we define as a “trip chain”.

The LTSA’s 1997/98 New Zealand (Household) Travel Survey database during 2003-2004 has been reformulated to derive trip chains and tours (beginning and ending at home) to better understand New Zealanders’ travel behaviour. Among other things, the research helps to:
• correct widespread misunderstandings about the nature and frequency of short trips,
• enable better quantification of potential for change from short car trips to other modes,
• provide inputs for developing policy and infrastructure programmes,
• enable new and improved performance measures.