Old town fringe recognition and travel characteristics analysis based on multi-source data fusion

Old town fringe area refers to a surrounding zone of an old town. The fringe undertakes the important function of evacuating traffic volume between suburb districts and central city. Traffic flow and travel behavior of the old town fringe are complex and different from other areas. Thus, recognition of fringe area is of importance for researchers to better understand the unique travel features and propose proper policies for fringe renewal. This study took the city of Nanjing as an example and fused the residents' travel survey data and the point-of-interest data for fringe recognition. The study estimated the travel intensity of each travel analysis zone per day. The mutation point of travel intensity was decided to divide the fringe. The point-of-interest data was used for validating the boundaries of the fringe. The fusion of the two data sets jointly decided the core old town fringe area. The travel behavior characteristics of the fringe area, including the fringe internal trips, crossing fringe trips, and those with only origin or destination in the fringe, were then evaluated and policy suggestions were provided. The findings of the study will benefit the urban space planning and coordinated transportation system development in the fringe area of old towns.