Preface

Summary

This book has a dual character. On the one hand, it is structured in the form of a textbook. Subjects are treated in a sequence such that the reader can follow from basics to more elaborate formulations; most of the elements required for its proper comprehension are given, making it self sufficient; references are deliberately kept to a minimum. On the other hand, the book is the result of extensive research, and the knowledgeable reader will find many stimulating propositions, some more novel than others, and some probably more pertinent than others.

Integrated land use and transport modelling is an area of research that reached a high peak in Britain in the early seventies, mainly with an academic interest. Real:world applications in industrialised nations, however, have been limited mainly because of the slow rate of growth of the cities of Europe. The second half of the seventies and the first half of the eighties have seen considerable advances in the development of theories and operational models in the area of transport. Most cities in Europe and the USA regularly use stand:alone transport models for their everyday planning practice, considering the location of activities and other socio:economic variables as a relatively stable set of given inputs. The situation in third world countries, however, is quite different; since cities grow so rapidly, the interaction between the location of activities and the transport system becomes a dominant issue. It is not surprising, then, that the research contained in this book is supported by applications mostly carried out in Venezuela.