In order to improve the accuracy of travel demand forecast and considering the distribution of travel behaviors within time dimension, a trip chaining pattern recognition model was established based on activity purposes by applying three methods： the support vector machine （SVM） model, the radial basis function neural network （RBFNN） model and the multinomial logit （MNL） model. The effect of explanatory factors on trip chaining behaviors and their contribution to model performace were investigated by sensitivity analysis. Results show that the SVM model has a better performance than the RBFNN model and the MNL model due to its higher overall and partial accuracy, indicating its recognition advantage under a smai sample size scenario. It is also proved that the SVM model is capable of estimating the effect of multi-category factors on trip chaining behaviors more accurately. The different contribution of explanatory, factors to trip chaining pattern recognition reflects the importance of refining trip chaining patterns ad exploring factors that are specific to each pattern. It is shown that the SVM technology in travel demand forecast modeling and analysis of explanatory variable effects is practical.
