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.     

Representing pedestrian activity in travel demand models: Framework and application

There have long been calls for better pedestrian planning tools within travel demand models, as they have been slow to incorporate the large body of research connecting the built environment and walking behaviors. Most regional travel demand forecasting performed in practice in the US uses four-step travel demand models, despite advances in the development and implementation of activity-based travel demand models. This paper introduces a framework that facilitates the abilities of four-step regional travel models to better represent walking activity, allowing metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to implement these advances with minimal changes to existing modeling systems. Specifically, the framework first changes the spatial unit from transportation analysis zones (TAZs) to a finer-grained geography better suited to modeling pedestrian trips. The MPO's existing trip generation models are applied at this spatial unit for all trips. Then, a walk mode choice model is used to identify the subset of all trips made by walking. Trips by other modes are aggregated to the TAZ level and proceed through the remaining steps in the MPO's four-step model. The walk trips are distributed to destinations using a choice modeling approach, thus identifying pedestrian trip origins and destinations. In this paper, a proof-of-concept application is included to demonstrate the framework in successful operation using data from the Portland, Oregon, region. Opportunities for future work include more research on the potential routes between origins and destinations for walk trips, application of the framework in another region, and developing ways the research could be implemented in activity-based modeling systems.     

Time-use data, analysis and modeling: toward the next generation of transportation planning methodologies

This paper argues that transportation planning methodologies must be built on the central thesis of the activity-based approach to travel demand modeling, namely, that travel is a derived demand that reflects people's desire and need to participate in activities. The paper discusses why this foundation for transportation planning methodologies is necessary to address contemporary planning and policy analysis issues. The paper also argues that the introduction of time-use data, analysis and modeling is a key element in the development of the next generation of transportation planning methodologies. Following a brief review of time-use studies, the paper discusses a number of planning and policy analysis areas in which time-use data will be of particular value, including the evaluation of induced or suppressed travel demand. The concepts advanced in the paper are illustrated with two brief numerical examples. These examples show how model systems based on time-use data can be used to (i) estimate the number of induced trips that would result from a reduction in commute travel time, and (ii) evaluate the impacts of alternative transportation improvement projects.     

Understanding the travel behaviors and activity patterns of the vulnerable population using smart card data: An activity space-based approach

Understanding the travel behaviors and activity patterns of vulnerable people is important for addressing social equity in urban and transportation planning. With the increasing availability of large-scale individual tracking data, new opportunities have emerged for studying people's travel behaviors and activity patterns. However, the data has not been fully exploited to examine the travel characteristics of vulnerable people and their implications for understanding transport-related disadvantage. This study proposes a methodological framework based on the concept of activity space that enables a comprehensive examination of vulnerable people's spatiotemporal travel characteristics and an investigation of the geographies of transport disadvantage. Using the proposed framework, a case study that investigates the bus activities of the vulnerable population using four-month smart card data is carried out in the city of Wuhu, China. The case study suggests that vulnerable people possess distinct travel behaviors that differ considerably from the mainstream population and that the implications of transport disadvantage, as revealed by the participation in bus activities, vary across different demographic groups and across different spatial contexts. Some of the empirical insights obtained from this study also differ from conclusions drawn from previous studies and will enrich our understandings of vulnerable people's activities. Overall, the paper makes two major contributions. Methodologically, the proposed framework can overcome some of the deficiencies of activity space-based approaches for understanding transport disadvantage and contribute broadly to the studies of travel behaviors and activities patterns using individual-level tracking data. Empirically, the study identifies varying spatial and temporal implications of transport disadvantage associated with different vulnerable groups, which could further shed light on public transit planning and service design.     

Travel difficulties and barriers during later life: Evidence from the National Travel Survey in England

Using data from the National Travel Survey in England, this study investigates which factors lead to experiencing travel difficulties amongst people aged 60 years old and above. The ability to be mobile is one of the key factors enabling older people to maintain their wellbeing and independence while ageing. Given the shift towards an ageing population that our society is experiencing, providing an age-friendly transportation environment becomes necessary to allow older people to be able to fulfil their travel needs and keep involved in societal participation. By employing a conceptual framework based on five interrelated domains shaping mobility during later life, this paper explores older people's difficulties in accessing transport resources, mode usage and undertaking out-of-home activities. Poor health and wellbeing conditions, lack of access to transport resources and gender are identified as the main predictors to experiencing travel difficulties in later life, while activities more affected in this sense are medical appointments, visiting family or friends and social ones. The findings have implications for policies, planning and interventions targeting age-friendly and inclusive transport and environment and show the need to move beyond the transport domain and employ a more holistic and intersectionality-based approach to understand what affects and shapes mobility in later life.     

Inter-regional and inter-temporal analysis of travel behaviour for Asian metropolitan cities: Case studies of Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Nagoya

The unprecedented demand for travel experienced in Asia, in conjunction with the economic development of the1980s, has resulted in a number of detrimental effects on urban systems. Economic development has certainly intensified per capita income enhancing personal mobility. In Asia, private vehicle ownership and usage have continued to be recognised as an obligatory element of travel for many. Undoubtedly there is a direct relationship between vehicle ownership and public transport usage. Inter-regional and inter-temporal investigations of travel behaviour in Asian cities are therefore necessary to develop an understanding of the future transportation system including suitability and the role of public transport. Since travel data are scarce in Asian countries, inter-regional or inter-temporal travel behaviour investigations do not exist to date. Several travel demand models are developed using discrete choice modelling techniques and Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Nagoya as case studies. Estimation results of the mode choice models are successfully incorporated to compare travel behaviour trends in selected cities in Asia. The developed models are tested for spatial and temporal transferability.     

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.     

Money Allocation to Out-of-Home Leisure Activities and the Organization of These Activities in Time and Space

Monetary budgets influence activity participation and related travel as they demarcate limits on how people organize their activities in time and space. In this paper, we are interested in money allocation to out-of-home leisure activities and how this is affected by duration, sociodemographics, and time-location variables. Analyses were carried out by applying a seemingly unrelated regression model to a leisure activity data set. The analyses revealed that expenditures for out-of-home leisure activities are influenced by the variables mentioned above. Moreover, the results indicate that there is a substitution between expenditure of each activity.     

The impact of driving status on out-of-home and social activity engagement among older Canadians

The loss of a driver's license can significantly limit a person's ability to engage in desired activities outside their home, which may, in turn, jeopardize their independence, well-being, and quality of life. This research seeks to quantify the impacts of driving status on out-of-home and social activity engagement among non-working older (≥ 65 years) Canadians, and the distribution of these impacts across socio-demographic and self-reported health domains. Nationally representative cross-sectional time diary data were used to measure the participation rates and daily durations of out-of-home and social activity engagement among non-working older Canadians who have a driver's license (i.e., drivers) and those who did not (i.e., non-drivers). Results indicate drivers were, on average, more than twice as likely to participate in out-of-home and social activities compared to non-drivers. However, the mean durations of activity engagement, among the participant sub-sample, appear largely invariant to driving status. Among the socio-demographic and self-reported health factors affecting out-of-home and social activity engagement, geography appears the most influential for participation rates and durations, particularly for non-drivers who live in small towns and rural areas. Due to demographic trends that suggest an increasing number of older Canadians will be unable to drive, communities should expect a commensurate increase in demand for alternate mobility options, which will inevitably require a variety of context-specific accessibility strategies.     

Telecommuting and other trips: an English case study

This paper investigates the importance of non-work travel to the growing population of telecommuters and the implications of this for sustainable travel patterns. Previous research has identified a link between increased online access to work and reduced proximity between residential and workplace locations. These studies raise concerns that as more people split their work activities between home and external workplace, whilst living in more dispersed locations, more unsustainable transport impacts will be generated, including higher vehicle mileage, car dependency, and less physical activity. This paper counters that the implications of telecommuting and other flexible working practices for sustainable travel behaviours may be more dependent upon the number and type of non-work journeys and the accessibility of amenities for these purposes rather than on the distance to the workplace for less frequent commuting journeys. Using the National Travel Survey for England, the travel behaviours of those who identify themselves not as home workers but as working from home at least once a week are compared to other working adults by measuring and modelling the number and purpose of trips within a week's travel diary, independent of distance or mode. Telecommuters record fewer commute trips, more trips for other purposes, and the marginal utility of additional non-work trips to telecommuters is greater than for many other socio-economic characteristics. Thus, addressing the accessibility of non-work destinations proactively through local planning has the potential to optimise the sustainability benefits of telecommuting.     

R-Tresis: developing a transport model system for regional New South Wales

This paper sets out a demand modelling framework for the development of a regional transport and land use model system (R-Tresis), to be implemented for New South Wales (Australia). Traditionally, the focus of such a model system has been major metropolitan areas such as Sydney, where we have developed Tresis (Hensher, 2002). Given the growing concern about regional accessibility to many service classes, there is a need for a modelling capability that can be used to prioritize and guide policy decisions in regions that are often described as remote, rural, low density and small town. In developing a framework that is capable of integrating both demand and supply elements of transportation and land use activity, we recognized the challenges in developing primary data sources, and the high likelihood of a reliance on secondary data sources. This suggested an alternative approach to demand modelling that was not dependent on choice models; namely a suite of continuous choice models in which we capture the actual activities undertaken by each mode on both the demand and supply side at high spatial resolution.     

Travel and activity time allocation: An empirical comparison between eight cities in Europe

A study of daily time allocation to travel and out-of-home activity is conducted across eight European cities over three countries: France (Lyon, Grenoble, Strasbourg and Rennes), Switzerland (Geneva, Bern and Zurich) and Belgium (Brussels), based on individual travel survey data collected between 1997 and 2006. The effects of socio-demographic, spatial context, transport availability and city-specific variables are investigated thanks to the Cox proportional hazard model. The results indicate that socio-demographic characteristics and city (or country) specific effect play a major role while residential density and proximity to high level road or public transport networks have a very limited impact on time budgets for travel and out-of-home activities.     

A GIS-based time-geographic approach of studying individual activities and interactions in a hybrid physical–virtual space

Modern information and communication technologies (ICT) are changing human activity and travel patterns that could have significant implications to our everyday lives and the human organization of space. Time geography, which examines human activities under various constraints in a space–time context, provides a useful framework to analyze the complex spatio-temporal relationships among activities and interactions taking place in both physical and virtual spaces. However, virtual activities and interactions conducted via ICT have characteristics that cannot be properly represented and analyzed under the classical time-geographic framework. This paper extends classical time-geographic concepts to accommodate the needs of representing and analyzing all activities and interactions in a hybrid physical–virtual space. In addition, this paper presents a space–time geographic information system (GIS) design that is capable of organizing complex activity and interaction data as spatio-temporal processes in an integrated space–time environment. This space–time GIS design offers a useful analytical environment for researchers to study increasingly dynamic human activity and travel patterns in today’s society and their implications toward changing travel demand patterns from both spatial and temporal perspectives.     

Activity-travel behaviour of non-workers belonging to different income group households in Bangalore,India

Non-workers – homemakers, unemployed individuals and the retired – generally have more discretionary time than workers do, and hence, their travel behaviour and response to infrastructure improvements and travel demand management measures are different from that of workers. However, much remains unknown about activity-travel behaviour of non-workers in developing countries. Can we expect similarity between activity participation and travel behaviour of non-workers in different income group households in developing countries? How do the socio-demographic settings in India, for e.g., traditional gender roles and multi-member households, and land use context influence the activity-travel choices of non-workers in different income group households? The present study attempts to answer these questions by presenting a comparative analysis of activity-travel behaviour of non-workers in low-, medium-, and high-income households in Bangalore city, India. Using a primary activity-travel survey data, the study mainly compares the activity-travel behaviour of the three income-groups with respect to various activity-travel indicators. In addition, statistical models of daily out-of-home time allocation, trip chaining, and mode choice behaviour are estimated separately for the three groups to investigate the potential sensitivity of the groups to various factors influencing these behaviour indicators. The study findings suggest that the low-income group non-workers are more mobility-constrained than others, apparent from longer walk trip length and the lower dependency on other modes of transport. The low-income group appears to make more social stops than the other two groups, probably a reflection of social-connections due to the increased dependency on walking. However, the number of recreational and shopping stops made by this group appears to be significantly lower than the other two groups. Further, the influence of mixed residential development on low-income group individuals' maintenance and discretionary activity time allocation decision appears to be insignificant. Overall, the study suggests that future land use planning for Bangalore might ensure that all groups of individuals have equal access (in terms of travel time/distance) to basic facilities.     

Key research themes on ICT and sustainable urban mobility

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are hypothesized to replace or change the use of the transport system by facilitating new or different activities. This article offers a review of more than 40 years of research regarding the relationship between ICTs and urban mobility. We discuss the expectations for the changes in travel demand, travel patterns, and the urban form as a result of the development and introduction of ICTs. Much of the interest in the relationships between ICTs and mobility is premised on the expectation of substitution effects, but empirical findings often suggest more complex effects than direct substitution. Although research on single types of travel activity may sometimes indicate simple substitution effects, examination of the broader impacts may also reveal travel generation effects as well. As such, ICTs do not simply substitute mobility patterns but change them. A growing body of research focuses on changing mobility patterns (in terms of time and space), changes in the experience of travel and changes in the perceptions of travel costs due to the interaction between old and new technologies for overcoming distance. ICTs are gradually becoming embedded within the transport system, enabling flexibility, multitasking, and an increase in human activities.     

Examining the impact of weather variability on non-commuters’ daily activity–travel patterns in different regions of Sweden

By jointly modelling the routine and leisure activity–travel engagements of non-commuters in different regions of Sweden, this paper explores the interactions between time allocation, travel demand and mode choice under different weather conditions. Combined weather and travel survey datasets that span a period of over 13 years were analysed. Simultaneous Tobit models were applied to explore the interactions among these activity–travel indicators, whilst municipalities’ unique conditions and heterogeneities between different time-points were taken into account. The model results reveal the trade-offs between routine and leisure activities in terms of activity duration, number of trips and travel time. Positive mutual endogeneity was found between slow-mode share in routine and leisure trips. The results also highlight the trade-offs between routine and leisure activities under abnormal weather conditions. Regional differences between weather effects are substantial due to differences in direct, indirect and total marginal effects. Between-municipality variability constitutes a considerable part of the variability in activity duration and travel time. Between-municipality variability in leisure activity duration and leisure travel time is larger in northern Sweden, while that of routine activity duration and routine travel time is larger in central Sweden, after weather and social demographics have been controlled.     

Built environment effects on leisure travel for children: Trip generation and travel mode

This study empirically analyzed the effects of built environment on leisure travel among children. Students of three elementary schools, namely Yangmingshan, Sanyu and Shilin, all located in the Shilin District of Taipei, were chosen to provide sample data. The negative binomial regression model and multinomial logit model were used to analyze trip generation and travel mode, respectively. This study reached the following empirical findings: (1) mixed land use, employment density, walkway quality, leisure facility supply and leisure travel distance encouraged generation of leisure trips for children; (2) intersection density, building density, employment density and walkway quality encouraged a child to use transit systems or non-motorized travel modes for leisure travel; and (3) vehicle density and leisure travel distance discouraged walking and biking but encouraged the use of transit systems for leisure travel involving children. Local government can use the empirical findings of this study to develop urban planning strategies to encourage children to perform leisure activities outside the home using transit systems or non-motorized travel modes.     

Predicting multi-faceted activity-travel adjustment strategies in response to possible congestion pricing scenarios using an Internet-based stated adaptation experiment

This paper reports the estimation of several discrete choice models describing reactions of individuals to congestion pricing scenarios. The models were estimated on data obtained in a stated adaptation experiment that was administered through the Internet and designed to examine how individuals adjust their activity-travel patterns. An activity-based approach is used meaning that all choice facets of activity patterns are taken into account as well as a complete set of activities. Estimates of price elasticities of travel demand are in line with other findings reported in the literature. Results of the stated adaptation experiment suggest that changing route or departure time is the most important way of adapting work trips, whereas public transport and working at home play a more limited role. For non-work activities changing route and switching to bike are the dominant responses.     

Inferring the trip purposes and uncovering spatio-temporal activity patterns from dockless shared bike dataset in Shenzhen,China

Trip purpose is closely related to travel patterns and plays an important role in urban planning and transportation management. Recently, there has been a growing interest in investigating the spatio-temporal patterns of dockless shared-bike usage and its influencing mechanisms. Few, however, have focused on revealing the travel patterns by inferring the purpose of dockless shared-bike trips at the individual level. We present a framework for inferring the purpose of dockless shared-bike users, based on gravity model and Bayesian rules, and conduct it in Shenzhen, China. We consider the comprehensive factors including distance, time, environment, activity type proportion, and service capacity of points of interest (POIs), the last two factors of which were usually neglected in previous transport studies. Especially, we integrated areas of interest (AOIs) and Tencent User density (TUD) social media data characterize the service capacity of POIs, which reflect the area and scale differences of different POI categories. Through the comparison between two improved models and the basic model, it is demonstrated that the introduction of activity type proportion and service capacity of POIs can improve the effectiveness of model for inferring the purposes of dockless shared-bike trips. Based on the obtained trip purposes, we further explore the spatio-temporal patterns of different activities and gain some insights into bike travel demand, which can inform scientific decisions for bicycle infrastructure planning and dockless shared- bike management.