Implications of the travel time budget for urban transportation modelling in Canada

In recent years a new concept in urban transportation planning - the travel time budget, has been proposed. Essentially, the concept states that average daily travel time per tripmaker is approximately one hour. An additional corollary is that automobiles are utilized for approximately 0.8 hours per day, provided that the level of traffic congestion is reasonable. This theory has been validated in only 10 U.S. cities since it was proposed, and is still considered with skepticism by the transportation planning profession. By analyzing the travel data in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Calgary, this thesis verifies the travel time budget hypotehsis for Canadian urban centers. The thesis also discusses what implications this theory may have for the conventional transportation planning process, particularly techniques of trip generation and capacity restraint.