scope:

INTRODUCTION

System Development Corporation (SDC) has performed a study to survey the characteristic use patterns of privately operated automobiles in the Minneapolis-St. Paul urban area. The study was conducted under jointly sponsored research contracts to the National Center for Air Pollution Control, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Coordinating Research council, Inc. The purpose of the study was to obtain data necessary to develop a composite average driving pattern that would serve as a basis for designing new test cycles for vehicle emission control devices.

During the study SDC installed automatic information recording devices - called Tachographs - in 125 privately operated automobiles volunteered by Minneapolis-St. Paul area residents. The data records from these instruments as well as information obtained from log books maintained by each of the volunteer participants have been reduced and analyzed. This document presents a discussion of the study results and a comparison of these results with the findings of similar surveys conducted previously in Los Angeles, California; Houston, Texas; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Chicago, Illinois.

This report is published as Volume IV of SDC document series TM-(L)-4119. Volume 0, A Survey of Average Driving Patterns in the Los Angeles Urban Area presents in addition to the Los Angeles survey findings a description of the survey technique as well as the data reduction and statistical analysis procedures. Since the technique and procedures used for collecting and analyzing the Minneapolis-St. Paul data are essentially the same as those employed for Los Angeles, reference is made to Volume 0 for information in these areas.