Calibration of Gravity Model with Impedance Factors for Medium Town in India

Transportation planning is the process of defining future policies, goals, investments and design to prepare for future needs. Many urban cities and towns of India are facing transportation problems due to increased rate of urbanization, urban sprawl and tremendous increase in travel demand. Travel demand management is crucial part of transportation planning which depends on the socio-economic parameters of that area. The study has been carried out for Morbi (a medium town II) of Saurashtra region of Gujarat having population of 1.94 lakh. Morbi is ceramic hub of India which contributes more than 70% of the total ceramic production of India. It has also some other industrial development like manufacturing of wall clock, CFL bulbs and electric bikes which generates employment opportunities. There is remarkable rate of migration due to its industrial development. The public transportation system (city bus service) has been started in 2014 which is not sufficient to cope with the growing travel demand of Morbi. To overcome the transportation issues like increased travel demand, congestion, air pollution - a sustainable development is very much required for Morbi city. The first step taken by researcher is the digitization of map of Morbi city by using TransCAD software. The study area has been divided in to 14 zones. The Home Interview Survey has been carried out for socio economic data and trip information with sample size of 1 in 35 HH. The distances from CBD for all wards have been plotted on digitized map. Trip generation model with regression analysis in Excel sheet is developed for the study area. Mode choice for trips by two-wheeler (43%), Rickshaw (24%), Car (8%), Bus (2%), Bicycle (5%), and Walk (18%), are observed. Trip distribution is the second stage of travel demand modeling. This paper focuses on calibration of gravity model for medium sized city. Calibration parameters for four different impedance factors –Travel distance, Euclidean distance, Travel time and Travel cost have been derived. Trip length frequency distribution of observed trips and modeled trips is presented. Citation: Prof. Rena N. Shukla, Toral Vyas. "Calibration of Gravity Model with Impedance Factors for Medium Town in India." Global Research and Development Journal For Engineering [RUCTD2018], ISTE Gujarat Section and Madhya Pradesh Section Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, (November 2018) : pp. 29 - 35.