Toward an Operational Model of Daily Household Activity-Travel Behavior

Abstract

<p>Since the late 1970s, the rapidly expanding literature subsumed under the activity-based paradigm has increased significantly our understanding of urban travel behavior and provided insights into new approaches to replace current models of urban travel demand-namely, the Urban Transportation Modeling System. A basic tenet of this paradigm is that decision-making occurs in a household context, taking into account interactions among household members. This differs, however, from the reality of activity-based research to date. With few exceptions, the decision-making unit in both empirical studies and modeling efforts is the individual, not the household. In this dissertation, it is argued that there is a need to develop activity-based travel demand forecasting models at the household level. To this end, a conceptual framework is proposed for modeling daily household activity-travel behavior. This framework is developed for the heads of five common household types and consists of two modules: Activity-Episode Generation and Activity-Episode Scheduling. The statistical models underlying the former module are discussed and estimated using data from a trip diary survey conducted in the Greater Toronto Area in 1987. The Activity-Episode Generation module is then implemented as an object-oriented simulation model. This model is used to evaluate the effects of a large-scale adoption of the compressed workweek on the daily number of out-of-home activity episodes for the heads of households in the Greater Toronto Area in 1986.</p>