Center for Activity Systems Analysis

A systematic approach is developed to transform data in the existing yellow-page databases to a point-based GIS database on activity supply. Such a database is needed for an activity-based travel forecasting system and for disaggregate accessibility analysis. First, the linkage between activity types and business types is established. According to this lookup relationship, businesses and services associated with certain activity types can be selected. These records are then geocoded by address-matching in a GIS and the locations supplying these activities are pinned down. Technical issues such as the difficulty in linking businesses to activities, long term projection and address-matching are discussed and potential solutions are proposed. Finally, issues that need to be addressed when attempting to develop an activity-based forecasting system are examined from the perspective of activity supply.