Relationships among discretionary activity duration,its travel time spent and activity space indices in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area,Indonesia

This study examines the interdependencies among an individual's time allocation for different activities and the travel time spent on a given day, socio-demographic and built environment variables on these in-home and out-of-home discretionary activities time duration, and how interaction of those variables on discretionary activities time duration influences an individual's activity space indices in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JMA), Indonesia. The 3SLS model and the 2004 SITRAMP household travel survey were used to achieve this objective. The results show that the time allocation for certain discretionary activities significantly influences the time allocation for other discretionary activities. Workers, students and non-workers have different complex mechanisms pertaining to how they allocate time across different activities and journeys. This unique trade-off mechanism gives an individual a unique distribution of activity locations and spatial movement patterns. This is observed via his/her activity space indices throughout time and space. For example, the estimation result shows that workers' and students' time-use allocation, activities participation and activity space indices are highly influenced by their engagement in mandatory activities. However, this is not the case for non-workers. Furthermore, the mandatory travel time variable has a stronger impact on an individual's discretionary activities time-use pattern than the duration of mandatory activities. This may lead to the argument that, in order to provide more opportunities and flexibilities among the JMA's workers and students for undertaking discretionary activities, travel time reduction policies can play more significant role in shaping the discretionary activity-travel patterns than reduction in working/school hour policies. Additionally, in-line with previous findings in developed countries, locating grocery shops closer to residential areas in the CBD and in suburban areas creates more opportunities for workers and students to spend more time on out-of-home maintenance activities; with a shorter travel time, especially on Fridays.     

Analysing the complexity of day-to-day individual activity-travel patterns using a multidimensional sequence alignment model: A case study in the Bandung Metropolitan Area,Indonesia

Using a panel regression model and a multidimensional three-week household time-use and activity diary, this study analyses the complexity of the day-to-day variability in individuals' activity-travel patterns by applying a multidimensional sequence alignment model. It is found that the variability between weekend and weekday pairs is much greater than between weekday-weekday pairs or weekend-weekend pairs. The variability of other household members' activity-travel patterns is found to significantly influence an individual's activity-travel patterns. The results also show that the variability in the activity-travel patterns of workers and students is greater when conducting a particular discretionary activity on weekdays. Due to performing discretionary activities more often and for longer, non-workers tend to have more predictable activity-travel patterns. Undertaking multitasking activities within different activities on weekdays significantly impacted the different degrees of variability in an individual's activity-travel patterns. Having different health and built environment characteristics also corresponds with different degrees of predictability of the activity-travel patterns, particularly in the worker/student case.     

Disentangling the behavioural side of the first and last mile problem: the role of modality style and the built environment

The first and last mile (FLM) problem, namely the poor connection between trip origins or destination and public transport stations, is a significant obstacle to sustainable transportation as it is likely to encourage the use of cars for FLM travel, if not for the entire trip. This study examines the role of modality style and built environment in FLM mode choice behaviour, in order to identify the key features that might invoke a travel mode shift from cars to more sustainable travel options for both mandatory and discretionary trips. More specifically, this study draws on disaggregate data from the South East Queensland household travel survey and presents a latent class choice model to unravel modality style groups. Results reveal two distinct individual-level modality style groups: (1) driving and walking oriented; (2) multimodal travellers. Individuals in the second modality style group were found to be relatively inelastic to FLM travel time for mandatory trips, while individuals in the first group were largely unaffected by built environment characteristics and highly habitual in their mode choice behaviour for both mandatory and discretionary trips. Home residence environments with high road intersection density and public transport accessibility, and home residence environments with diverse land use mix, respectively encourage individuals within the second modality style to walk for mandatory trips, and discretionary trips. To this end, when place-based policies seek to change certain built environment features, individuals in the second modality style are more likely to shift their preference from cars to more sustainable modes. Finally, our findings have practical planning implications in targeting mode shift through highlighting the importance of considering the intersection of individual modality style in a given locale and mode choice behaviour. More specifically, our findings advocate for place-based policies that seek to target particular locales with the certain modality style deemed to be more predisposed to adopting a mode shift.     

Mitigating the impact of errors in travel time reporting on mode choice modelling

Travel time is a major component in understanding travel demand. However, the quantification of demand and forecasting hinges on understanding how travel time is perceived and reported. Travel time reporting is typically subject to errors and this paper focuses on the mitigation of their impact on choice models. The aim is to explain the origin of these errors by including elements of travel behaviour (e.g., activities during the trip), which have been shown to significantly affect mode choices and commuting satisfaction. Based on responses from a revealed preferences survey, we estimate a mode choice model that treats travel time as a latent variable and incorporates different sources of data along with information on travel activities. Employing these multiple – sometimes incongruent – sources of information in the choice model appears to be beneficial. Results from comparing a logit model assuming error-free inputs and the integrated hybrid model revealed significant impacts on the generated policy scenarios. The model results also contributed to identifying the main travel activity features that affect travel time reporting, providing indications that can assist in understanding and mitigating the impact of imprecise measurements.     

Carer-employees’ travel behaviour: Assisted-transport in time and space

Assisted-transport demand is a daily caregiving task that affects carer-employee’s activity-travel behaviour; however, little is known about such behaviour and the types of constraints that impact carer-employee health. Combining the principles of Hägerstrand’s time geography and Mckie et al.’s caringscape terrain, this research develops a mixed-methods framework to classify the travel behaviour of carer-employees based on their travel experience and the space-time fixity of their weekly schedules. The mixed-methods framework consists of sentiment analysis and k-means clustering, both which are used to analyze 25 randomly selected participants within the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area (GTAH). Participants were asked to reflect on their recorded one-week trips in a trip summary questionnaire. Sentiment analysis was used to thematically describe carer-employees’ travel behavior, whereas, k-means clustering generated travel behaviour profiles. “Time”, “pressure”, “parents”, “run”, and “long” were several thematic keywords describing the carer-employees’ travel behaviour. K-means clustering identified three relative types of carer-employees’ travel behaviours: 1) flexible, 2) between flexible and fixed, and; 3) fixed. These results provide critical information for the establishment of custom transport programs, such as maximum monthly telecommuting allotment; such programs are useful for employers to use in order to alleviate assisted-transport demand on their employees.     

How do passengers allocate and evaluate their travel time? Evidence from a survey on the Shanghai–Nanjing high speed rail corridor,China

Although previous studies have demonstrated that travel time is not wasted, only a limited number of studies have conducted an in-depth investigation of how passengers allocate their travel time and what factors will impact their subjective valuation of travel time (SVTT). Investigating such questions will uncover some of the possible economic, social, technological and behavioral reasons that influence SVTT. Using a survey of 822 passengers traveling along the Shanghai-Nanjing high speed rail (HSR) corridor in 2016, this study examines passengers' allocation of their travel time, and explores the determinants of SVTT for business and non-business travelers, respectively. Empirical results indicate that around half of the respondents spend the longest amount of travel time on ICT discretionary activities, but there are some differences across trip purpose. Ordered logit models suggest that SVTT is determined by a range of factors, which are classified into travel time allocation, HSR environment, travel attributes, and socio-demographic characteristics. However, the specific factors associated with SVTT are somewhat different between business and non-business trips. The findings of this study provide a better understanding of the perceived value of travel time in a supportive travel environment and in a typical e-society of a developing country, and offer implications for more comprehensively exploring determinants of SVTT in the future.     

Analysis of travel mode choice and trip chain pattern relationships based on multi-day GPS data: A case study in Shanghai,China

As the propensity to link multiple intermediate stops in a trip chain (a sequence of journeys that starts and ends at home, includes visiting one or more locations) is more prevalent, the relationship between travel mode choice and trip chain pattern aroused the attention of academics. This paper examines two distinct structures to identify the decision process of travelers between travel mode choice and trip chain pattern: one structure in which trip chain pattern organization precedes travel mode choice, another structure in which travel mode choice decision precedes the organization of trip chain pattern. To accommodate multi-day behavioral variability and unobserved heterogeneity in personal characteristics ignored by traditional travel surveys, multi-day GPS data collected in Shanghai is employed to estimate these two structures within Nested Logit (NL) model. The Monte Carlo (MC) method simulates the switch of trip-chaining and mode choice under possible Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies based on estimation results. The findings of this study are as follows: (1) trip chain pattern decision precedes travel mode choice, which means trip-chaining is organized first and affects travel mode choice; (2) complex trip chain is related to higher automobile dependency, and it is a barrier to the tendency to adopt public transit; (3) people who generally travel by automobiles might switch to public transit when private cars are unavailable, and an increase in household bicycle ownership enhances competition between the bicycle and public transit which leads people to turn to cycling. These findings help implement TDM strategies to develop sustainable transportation systems and optimize the urban trip structure.     

Exploring the trip chaining behaviour of public transport users in Melbourne

This paper explores trip chaining behaviour of Melbourne residents using evidence from a household travel survey. The research literature has suggested that trip-making behaviour has grown increasingly complex as modern life has become busier and people grow time-poor. Complex trip chains have been said to require flexible travel modes, and for this reason some research has suggested that public transport is limited in this regard compared to the private car. Results of this study show that between 1994 and 1999 the complexity of trip chains was relatively stable and the complexity of chains was found to be larger for rail and tram than for car-based trips. Disaggregate analyses compare the complexity of chains based on work versus non-work chains, the purpose of stops on the chain, and whether the chain entered the central city of Melbourne or not. Overall these findings suggest a less bleak outlook for public transport ridership in a travel future which is said to be becoming more complex.     

Investigating household vehicle ownership,mode choice and trip sharing decisions using a combined revealed preference/stated preference Nested Logit model: case study in Bangkok Metropolitan Region

This study proposes a Nested Logit model to investigate household travel behaviour in respect to vehicle ownership, mode choice and trip sharing decisions. The model is analysed using revealed preference (RP) and stated preference (SP) data since a combined estimation of RP/SP data is an effective method of expressing complex travel behaviour and forecasting travel demand for new transport services. In the proposed model, the nesting structure has two levels. The upper level shows car ownership, motorcycle ownership, and no vehicle-ownership choices, and the lower level shows the mode choice combinations for two-traveller households. Trip sharing is considered as one of the mode-choice options in the model. The proposed model is analysed using data from the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. The analysis conducted informs that Central Business District (CBD) travel, long distance travel, household income, job status, age of travellers and presence of school children in households are key aspects in household travel decisions. Based on these aspects, households make important decisions on vehicle ownership, mode choice and trip sharing. In addition, this study reveals commuters’ hidden preferences for modes that are not in existence, in particular the Mass Rapid Transit System in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region due to be fully implemented in 2010.     

Social inequalities in travel behaviour: trip distances in the context of residential self-selection and lifestyles

In recent years, the framework of ‘classical’ objective determinants of travel behaviour – such as transport systems, generalised travel costs, life situation and the built environment – has begun to make way for the introduction of subjective elements including attitudes, lifestyles, and location preferences. This paper presents findings from an empirical study of trip distances travelled for three purposes (work, maintenance, leisure). The study was conducted in the region of Cologne, and the analysis is based on structural equation modelling. The results indicate that, in general, neither lifestyles nor location preferences have a strong impact on trip distances, except for leisure activities: here lifestyle has the strongest impact of all variables studied. Maintenance trip distances are significantly affected by the spatial setting in which people live, indicating the relevance of the built environment for this travel segment.     

Built environment,peak hours and route choice efficiency: An investigation of commuting efficiency using GPS data

Commuting efficiency measures the impact of commuting on urban spatial and social environments. Urban policies aim to reduce commuting distances and improve commuting efficiency by supporting mixed land-use and job-housing balance. Many studies have addressed these issues by examining excess commuting at the aggregate level, and most aggregated measurements of excess commuting are based on home-to-work commuting flows between zones. However, residents' travel behaviour does not consist solely of rational attempts at minimizing commuting distances but is instead affected by commuting hours, the complexity of the commuting chain and the built environment. Thus, commuting efficiency must be studied at the individual or disaggregated levels. This paper examined individual commuting efficiency in suburban Beijing using a GPS-facilitated activity-travel survey and investigated the differences in commuting distance and route choice efficiency between morning and evening peaks. Notably, in so doing, we considered non-work stops, and also explored the impact of urban spatial factors – in both residential and working areas – on commuting efficiency using multilevel mixed effects generalized linear models. The findings suggest that there are significant differences in commuting distance and commuting efficiency between morning and evening peaks based on the nature of commutes. Residents working in city centres or with jobs near railway stations, with higher road network densities or with lower facility densities seem to be more adept at selecting optimal routes.     

Exploring transport to arts and cultural activities as a facilitator of social inclusion

This paper explores the relationship between travel and social inclusion in relation to a relatively rarely examined group of travel destinations—arts and cultural activities. This paper examines travel behaviour to arts and cultural activities and how this relates to social inclusion. Research literature associated with these issues is examined and then an analysis of a household travel survey in Melbourne, Australia, is undertaken to explore how travel to arts and cultural activities varies by income, car ownership and location. The paper outlines a range of evidence linking participation in arts and cultural activities and positive outcomes for social inclusion. Arts and cultural activities do not fit well into traditional household travel survey definitions of trip purposes. There is also no definitional difference between travel to activities and ‘participation’ or ‘attendance’ in arts and cultural activities. This is unfortunate since social outcomes may vary by participation or attendance. Travel survey analysis shows that like other activities trip rates to arts and cultural activities increase with income. However higher participation is demonstrated for zero- and one-car households, which contrasts with previous research of work, education and social travel. Higher participation is also demonstrated for those living in inner parts of the city. The paper suggests that most travel to arts and cultural activity is quite localised and hence much travel may be led by the diversity and range of local opportunities provided. These are particularly high in inner parts of the city. A high share of travel is also demonstrated for older people, who are thought to have the time and desire for greater participation in arts and cultural activities.     

Exploring heterogeneity in travel time expenditure of aging populations in the Netherlands: results of a CHAID analysis

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the increasing literature on travel behavior and time use of the elderly. The Dutch National Travel Survey, administered in 2009, was used as a data source. First, various facets of activity-travel patterns of the elderly were compared against overall sample averages. Results indicate that the new generation of elderly people do not differ that much from other age groups in terms of their activity-travel behavior. Differences in behavior can be largely understood in terms of constraints acting on agendas. Moreover, travel patterns of elderly are affected by socio-demographic variables. Second, to further qualify the average findings, the Chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) method was applied to explore heterogeneity among the elderly in terms of travel time expenditure. It is analyzed how differences in travel time co-vary with socio-demographics, in addition to activity type, activity duration and travel aspects. The results suggest that the aging population can be systematically broken down into several homogeneous cohort segments. Travel time of elderly groups depends significantly on transport modes, travel motivation, and seven socio-demographic variables (gender, age, living environment, personal net-income, household size and season). Moreover, there is less heterogeneity in travel time of elderly who are older than 75 years old. However, for younger elderly people, especially the group aged from 65 to 74 years old, heterogeneity affects their travel.     

Built environment diversities and activity–travel behaviour variations in Beijing, China

The association between built environment and travel behaviour has received considerable research attention in recent years. In an attempt to contribute to this growing literature, this paper investigates the connections between urban built environments and activity–travel patterns in Beijing, the capital city of China. We characterize the built environment in Beijing and establish associations between built environment and activity–travel behaviour in terms of car ownership, time spent for out-of-home activities, and daily trip frequencies and travel time. Activity diaries from 1119 respondents living in ten different neighbourhoods were collected by face-to-face interviews. A household-level structure equations model incorporating intra-household interactions is developed to analyse this data. The empirical results show that residents of different types of neighbourhoods in Beijing demonstrate significant differences in car ownership, time spent for out-of-home activities, trip rate, and travel time. Further, the characteristics of the built environment are found to have more significant impacts on the activity–travel behaviour of the male head than that of the female head.     

Accessibility evaluations for nighttime walking and bicycling for low-income shift workers

This paper addresses an important issue related to nighttime commuting of low-income shift workers who walk and/or bike to their workplace using public transit. A shift worker is anyone who follows a work schedule that is outside of the typical daytime working hours of a business day and commute after dark - by walking or bicycling to a transit stop. However, poor visibility conditions on sidewalks and bicycle lanes often thwart safety of their walking and bicycling activities. Therefore, this paper develops two simple scores - nighttime accessibility score for walking (NASW) and nighttime accessibility for bicycling (NASB) - for evaluating nighttime infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclist. The scores consider the employment data, travel time and the physical distribution of streetlight poles along the sidewalks and bicycle lanes. Data from the city of El Paso in Texas is used to demonstrate the applicability of the two scores. Employment data from three prominent service industry sectors known to employ low-income shift workers – i) Retail Trade, ii) Accommodation and Food Services, and iii) Health Care and Social Assistance – are used for demonstration purposes. It is observed that amongst the three sectors analyzed, both NASW and NASB values are higher for regions in El Paso with low-income employment concentrations from the Health Care and Social Assistance sector. It is also observed that some prominent regions in north-east, south-east and west of El Paso need improvements in streetlight systems, sidewalks and bicycle network to facilitate walking and bicycling amongst low-income shift workers employed in Retail Trade, and Accommodation and Food Services industry sectors to access transit stops at night.     

Segmenting travellers based on day-to-day variability in work-related travel behaviour

Travel needs for commute and business trips are complex and choices are not made based on the characteristics of individual trips, but instead based on the needs over weeks and months. For example, the cost per trip of commuting by bus varies depending upon the frequency of travel, and the cost of a monthly subway pass depends upon the number of zones visited during that period. Intrapersonal variability, namely the variation in an individual's travel behaviour from day to day, therefore shapes our transport choices and should influence service provision. Changes in working patterns such as increases in part time working, self-employment and tele-commuting challenge the traditionally held assumptions that work activities are fixed in time and space, thus making intrapersonal variability increasingly relevant. This research uses a data-driven approach to segment workers based on their work-related travel behaviour, including frequency of travel and both spatial and time of day intrapersonal variability. The analysis uses survey and seven day travel diary data for over 110,000 people collected over a 19 year period in England. Four groups of workers were identified: infrequent, spatially variable, temporally variable and regular travellers. These groups do not align closely with self-reported working arrangements such as self-employment or part time working. The group of regular travellers has decreased in size between 1998 and 2016 but remains the largest group, containing just under 60% of workers in 2016. Both the infrequent and spatially variable groups have grown over the same period. For a small but growing group of workers, a seven day diary is insufficient to understand their work-related transport needs as little or no work travel is recorded. These findings have implications for the design of public transport ticketing, the design of mobility as a service packages and the appraisal of congestion charging schemes.     

Teen travel in the Greater Toronto Area: A descriptive analysis of trends from 1986 to 2006 and the policy implications

This paper extends research on urban form and travel behavior beyond adult travel by examining teen travelers aged 13–19 in the Greater Toronto Area. Data from the Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS) survey are used to study four main research questions: (1) How has teen mode choice changed from 1986 to 2006? (2) How do these choices vary as teens transition from the 13–15 age group to being of driving age (16–19)? (3) How do these choices vary across the different urban and suburban regions of the GTA? (4) What are some of the differences between teen travel and adult travel? Results show that in general, active transportation has decreased, while auto-passenger mode shares have increased across the region. The younger group walks more and the older group takes transit more for both school and discretionary travel. Jurisdictions with better transit supply and orientation have higher transit mode shares for school trips, but discretionary trips have very low transit mode shares. Walk mode shares for both school and discretionary travel are similar across all jurisdictions, regardless of whether they are urban or suburban. In contrast to adult travel in the GTA, built form characteristics and transit supply do not appear to have a direct relationship with teen mode choice. Urban form appears to exert an indirect influence on teen travel.     

Constructing human activity spaces: A new approach incorporating complex urban activity-travel

Activity space represents an important concept for understanding human activity-travel. The existing activity space delineation approaches are limited in fully characterizing real-world travel behaviors. To address the issue, this research proposes a new time geography based approach to more accurately portray activity spaces of urban travelers. The proposed approach takes into account the full complexity of real-world travel and underlying urban structures. Results of an empirical study are presented based on the 2008 Add-on National Household Travel Survey conducted in Tucson, Arizona. Activity spaces of 1164 sample travelers are delineated and analyzed. Results show the effectiveness of the new approach in more realistically depicting urban activity-travel.     

Does the built environment make a difference? Additional evidence from the daily activity and travel behavior of homemakers living in New York City and suburbs

Homemakers, unlike employed people who have jobs and unemployed people who are seeking jobs, are a special group who do not have to spend time working out of the home, commuting to work, or looking for a job. Given that a regular job typically takes 9 h (This includes an assumed half-hour one-way commute time.) a day, the discretion to allocate their time is presumably much greater than other groups.In this paper, we focus our attention on homemakers’ activity and travel behavior in neighborhoods with different characteristics (e.g., very dense areas, dense areas, and suburbs). The question to be answered is quite simple: are there differences between travel behaviors of homemakers living in different types of neighborhoods? If yes, can these differences be attributed to differences in the built environment?The dataset used in the study is the Household Interview Survey (HIS) collected in 1997/1998 in the New York metropolitan area. We found significant differences in activity and travel related behavior by homemakers living in different types of neighborhoods. Compared to suburban homemakers, New York City homemakers spend more time on discretionary activities and less time on maintenance activities; use public transportation and walk more frequently; and conduct fewer trip chains. The study found that both individuals’ socio-economic characteristics and built environment appear to play a role in explaining behavior. A probably more important factor in explaining people’s time use behavior is the interrelationship between activities and trips, and between different types of activities.     

Towards an understanding of international city break travel

This paper explores city break tourism and, in particular, the distinctive characteristics of this form of travel. The city break is examined and compared with other types of trips. The research follows a sequential mixed methods approach involving both a visitor survey and in‐depth interviews. The findings show the international city break trip to have a number of distinctive characteristics. These are summarised into five main areas (5 Ds) — duration, distance, date flexibility, discretionary nature and destination travel party. These distinguishing features provide a useful insight into one of the most important yet least examined travel segments in tourism research. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.