Description

The purpose of this research was to assess and project the effects of online shopping on vehicular traffic. It was anticipated that as more people purchased goods and services online. short-distance traffic would be reduced. The method of study was personal interviews following a literature review of this subject. Efforts were focused on consumers’ shopping behaviors and the resulting effects on short-distance traffic. Survey data were combined with forecasts of online shopping volume from eMarketer, and estimates of total trip savings were made for the years 2000 and 2004. The results were not encouraging. We estimated that online shopping reduced total short-distance vehicle traffic by only 0.31 percent in 2000, and in 2004, the reduction in short-distance vehicle traffic will be about 0.93%. The implications are that online shopping cannot be counted on for significant reduction in vehicular traffic in the short to immediate term. However, this conclusion will change if technology development moves ahead to the point of making online shopping more attractive for the majority of shopper.

Publication Date

10-1-2001

Publication Type

Report

Topic

Miscellaneous

MTI Project

9903

Keywords

Purchasing; Traffic forecasting; Trip distribution; Trip estimation.

Disciplines

Transportation

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