Classification of Rural Residents on the Basis of Activity Travel Characteristics

Abstract

A significant portion of the population of developing countries resides in rural areas. Despite the importance of rural transportation planning in such countries, little is known about the activity travel characteristics of these rural residents. The topic has been largely ignored in transportation studies. To contribute to the scant literature, this study focused on a classification of representative activity travel–based clusters (RACs) in rural areas of Iran. A place-based interview questionnaire was designed, and data about activity and travel characteristics of rural residents were collected in May 2012. On the basis of the distance between a village and the nearest city, nearby and distant villages were considered in the survey. The statistical analysis used 665 questionnaires. A classification procedure was applied to analyze the data. First, the application of factor analysis with Varimax rotation that used Kaiser criteria resulted in nine factors, extracted from 22 initial variables. The types of villages were used to compare the factors. Results indicated that descriptive factors of rural RACs were strongly affected by the distance between a village and the nearest city. Next, a cluster analysis, which resulted in nine RACs, was conducted. Each RAC consisted of a dominant activity type, activity location, and transportation mode. Through interpretation of the RACs, the rural population was categorized into nine lifestyles. Subsequently, the distribution of village type and respondent gender and age variables for each RAC was explored. Except for age categories, differences between distributions of the village type and gender in the RACs were considerable.

Measurement of Rural Residents’ Mobility in Western China: A Case Study of Qingyang, Gansu Province

“…In recent years, research on mobility has classified rural residents [43], studied the travel behaviors of rural middle-class residents [44], and explained typical rural activity patterns, decision-making procedures, and travel chain characteristics [45] by using data of rural residents' activities and travel characteristics. Some scholars also compared the time variation of urban and rural residents' travel behaviors [46,47] and the differences in sports and leisure behaviors [48].…”

“…Compared with foreign studies, few studies have focused on the spatial mobility of rural residents in China. Previous research has paid extra attention to rural-urban migrants promoted by rapid urbanization and industrialization [57], with emphasis on the importance of mobility strategies that consider the specific needs within the field of rural transportation [43]. Recent studies have focused on the impact of rural human capital and China's forest conservation programs on rural residents' mobility [11,12,58].…”

Rural location-based activity generation: a case study of Iran villages

“…However, similar to other studies in this context, their study lacked rigorous analysis, indicating the need for more advanced analytical approaches. Dashtestaninejad, Vaziri and Timmermans (2014) also explored activity and travel characteristics of rural residences by identifying Representative Activity-travel Characteristics (RAC) in four villages in Iran using clustering techniques and factor analysis. After interpreting the identified groups, the relationships between groups, and socio-economic characteristics of group members and type of villages (close and far to the nearest city) were identified.…”