Search

The impact of spatial characteristics on well-being has received increasing attention over the past decade. In most studies, however, the emphasis has been on either cognitive well-being (life satisfaction) or mental health. In addition, studies differ in terms of using objective or subjective characteristics, and in terms of the spatial scale of spatial variables (neighbourhood vs. the wider urban environment). This paper first discusses these differences from a theoretical point of view, and then compares model estimates based on different well-being conceptualisations and using objective and subjective spatial variables. To this end, a survey was held in the Utrecht province in the Netherlands that focused on this issue. We find that significant differences in cognitive and affective wellbeing and mental health are observed between neighbourhoods, which can be explained from both neighbourhood characteristics and personal characteristics of the inhabitants. We find that life satisfaction and affective well-being are more affected by subjective spatial variables, and mental health more by objective variables. In particular, life satisfaction and affective well-being are mostly affected by neighbourhood attractiveness and social safety, whereas mental health is positively associated with a newer housing stock. In general neighbourhood characteristics appear to have greater impact on different forms of well-being than accessibility variables on the urban level.

This article investigates the impact of the running environment on perceived satisfaction, restoration, and running participation based on a questionnaire distributed to 1,581 novice runners. The most frequently experienced impediments on running routes are poor lighting, unleashed dogs, and encounters with cyclists and cars. Regression analyses reveal that attractiveness and restorativeness are positively associated with the quality of the running surface and running in parks or outside towns and negatively by running on public roads in town, by running in larger cities (>250,000 inhabitants), and by other road users. However, attractiveness and restorativeness of running routes play only a minor role in the decision of how frequently to run. Practical considerations (proximity, threats) appear to have a larger impact on running frequency. Importantly, the most frequently mentioned impediments (poor lighting, cars, unleashed dogs) do not affect running frequency, whereas infrequent impediments (threats by other people) significantly affect running frequency.

Previous studies on the association between the availability of sports facilities and sports participation have neglected the influence of subjective constraints that individuals experience with regard to sports participation. This paper investigates to what extent constraints experienced by sports participants are associated with their spatial circumstances and whether these subjective constraints or objective spatial circumstances have a greater impact on sports frequency. Based on a survey among 776 adults in urban and rural municipalities in the Netherlands, regression analyses revealed that constraints were related to neighbourhood liveability and distance to indoor sports facilities and swimming pools. Time constraints had a strong negative effect on sports frequency, but the effect of distance to indoor facilities and swimming pools was even more important. Our results furthermore indicate a growing need for flexibility in the spatiotemporal organization of sports activities and an increased import...

Incentive-based travel demand management strategies are gaining increasing attention because they are generally considered more acceptable by the traveling public and policy makers. This study presented a detailed analysis and modeling effort aimed at understanding how incentives affected traveler choices by using data collected from a reward-based experiment conducted in 2006 in the Netherlands. The incentive-based scheme analyzed in this study included monetary rewards or credit toward obtaining a smartphone with a view to motivating commuters to change their choice of departure time out of the peak period or to shift their mode of travel. The mixed panel multinomial logit modeling approach adopted in this study was able to isolate the impacts of incentives on behavioral choices while accounting for variations in such impacts across socioeconomic groups that might have been due to unobserved individual preferences and constraints. The model also shed light on the effects of behavioral inertia, in which individuals were prone to continue their past behavior even when it was no longer optimal. Finally, the study offered insights on the extent to which behavioral changes persisted after termination of the incentive period. In general, it was found that incentives were effective in changing behavior and overcame inertial effects; however, individuals largely reverted to their original behavior when the rewards were eliminated. This finding suggests that incentives need to be provided for a sustained period to bring about lasting change.

Introduction: Travel behavior research has only started to address how travel affects emotional wellbeing. The development of measurement methods is an important goal of this research.Methods: A re ...

Understanding how infrastructures and urban environments shape the highly differentiated cycling experiences calls for further investigation. The current study addressed this challenge by employing Virtual reality (VR) applications. Quantitative methods were combined with a video simulation approach to model demand for cycling under different scenarios. VR environment mirroring the streetscape of a Dutch city was created. Environment greenness (green vs. no green), Bicycle path width (wide vs. narrow), Traffic volume (low vs. high) were manipulated. Participants had to cycle within the environments created, and thus having VR bike experience translating real world bike ride. VR experiences and cycling behaviour in response to the manipulated factors were measured.The results showed that participants enjoyed cycling most within green environment (than no green), and with wide (than narrow) bicycle lane. It was safer to cycle within wide bicycle path, and within low (than high) traffic volume. The environment was perceived as more aesthetic when cycling within green environment.Regression modelling further explored the relationship between the parameters hypothesised to influence the VR experiences. The better the naturalness and presence were perceived, the higher was the engagement. The higher the engagement was, the more the VR experience was liked.Current outcomes are unambiguous in showing that VR technology opens new avenues in addressing real-life problems with huge societal relevance, like improving urban environment infrastructure to unlock cycling and thus active transport.

A considerable amount of studies have indicated that people to some extent select themselves in specific neighbourhoods allowing them to travel in their desired way. Although a lot of studies analysed the degree to which travel preferences affect the residential location choice, few studies looked at the effect of a residential relocation on people's travel behaviour and attitudes. A new residential context has the potential to disrupt previous travel choices and could potentially change people's attitudes. This study – using 1539 recently relocated residents in the city of Ghent (Belgium) – analyses self-reported changes in mode frequency and travel attitudes after a relocation, and uses a cohort approach to look at mode frequency and attitudes at different times after the relocation took place. Results suggest that (i) travel attitudes often influence the residential location choice, and (ii) both travel attitudes and travel mode choice change after a relocation, albeit in different ways depending on the current (urban versus suburban) and previous residential neighbourhood (more/equally/less urbanised). This study also suggests that a (possible) dissonance between travel attitudes and the residential neighbourhood is partly a temporal situation, as attitudes can gradually change in accordance with the new residential environment.

This volume analyses the relevance of daily travel in the quality of life of individuals. It provides a broad understanding of the links between life satisfaction, well-being and travel, the import ...

In this chapter, ideas and directions for future research are presented. Various interventions, as a means of counteracting mispredictions by the individual traveler and breaking travel habits, are discussed and illustrated. We elaborate upon what is known about individuals’ predictions and their accompanying thoughts about possible consequences regarding wellbeing when performing a travel mode change. It is argued that one overall goal of every transport policy should be providing sustainable travel, accompanied by sustained or increased wellbeing. The authors conclude that, while there is a vast amount of research on judgment and decision making, there is still a need for knowledge of how to aid people’s judgments as regards switching to sustainable alternatives. Specifically, researchers are urged to unveil how to prevent a loss of, or support a gain in, wellbeing when switching to sustainable travel.

In this chapter, we provide an introduction to the topic and a brief overview of Quality of Life and Daily Travel. A short background of why it is relevant to study travel and wellbeing, along with definitions and concepts related to quality of life research – such as objective and subjective outcomes, and hedonic and eudaimonic outcomes – will be followed by an overview of the chapters of the book arranged in three parts: theoretical perspectives and conceptualizations, case studies, and future directions. The aim of this book, Quality of Life and Daily Travel, is to compile current knowledge into one edited volume, where several areas of research are integrated – including traffic and transport psychology, transport planning and engineering, transport geography, transport economics, consumer services, and wellbeing research – in order to discuss the various facets of the links between travel and wellbeing. The importance of mobility, accessibility, experiences and emotions for the wellbeing of people will be highlighted.

In de ruimtelijke wetenschappen is sport traditioneel een ondergeschoven kindje. Gezien de effecten van sport op gezondheid, welzijn, veiligheid, sociale interactie en uitsluiting kan geografisch onderzoek een belangrijke bijdrage leveren aan inzicht in de ruimtelijke determinanten en uitkomsten van sportdeelname. Dit artikel bespreekt kansrijke richtingen in geografisch sportonderzoek.

This paper investigates the spatial structure of students’ leisure trips and to what extent locational characteristics of social network partners influence decisions about their joint leisure activities and travel. To this end a survey was held among university students asking them about details of their last leisure trip made with a friend. Cluster analysis suggests that four typical leisure trip patterns can be derived. Three clusters seem to be determined by the residential locations of ego and alter. Depending on the residential distance between ego and alter, leisure trip distances are either short for ego and alter (if residential distance is very short), somewhat longer for both (if residential distance is slightly longer) or long for at least one partner (if residential distance is large). A fourth cluster includes cases with long leisure trips for both partners, independent of residential distance, representing cases where specific destinations are visited. A more detailed analysis of travel distance suggests that travel distance depends on size of the residential municipality, residential distance and objective and perceived quality of leisure facilities such as cafes, bars and restaurants. Overall, our study provides support for the idea that leisure trip decisions should be understood on the level of social network ties (i.e. ego and alter) rather than based on individual characteristics only. Also, it provides support for the idea that a focus on single ties, rather than on the structure of social networks as a whole, increases our insight in leisure trip decision making.Keywords: Social network links, Social-recreational travel, Spatial context, Students

Recent research suggests that travellers’ anticipated trip utility may differ from the utility they actually experience when making the trip. This implies that it is important to investigate not only the factors underlying trip decision making, but also the actual experience of the trip. To that end, this paper presents an empirical test of the satisfaction with travel scale (STS) that was developed to measure travellers’ satisfaction with travel. STS measures travel satisfaction in terms of two affective (positive activation versus negative de-activation and positive de-activation versus negative activation) and one cognitive dimension. The STS was applied in the Netherlands in a survey of car users. The results suggest that the reliability of the measurement scales is satisfactory to good, and that they are indicative of an overarching concept of travel satisfaction. Regression analyses carried out with the three STS dimensions as dependent variables show that STS is influenced by experienced traffic safety, annoyance with other road users, the trip being tiring, being distracted by billboards, and lack of freedom to choose speed and lane. In addition, travel purpose and personal characteristics play a role. Overall, the findings provide support for the validity of the STS as a tool to measure satisfaction with travel. It is concluded that using tools such as STS may provide relevant insights into how qualitative and design-related factors influence the attractiveness of trips made by car or other travel modes.

Multi-day activity-based models of travel demand are receiving increasing interest recently as successors of existing single-day activity-based models. In this article, we argue that predicting activity location choice-sets can no longer be ignored when multi-day time frames are adopted in these models. We develop a model to predict activity location choice-sets and choices from these sets conditionally upon varying activity schedule contexts. We propose a method to estimate parameters of the involved utility functions that do not require observations or imputation of choice-sets. This is achieved by using Bayes’ method to transform the likelihood of chosen locations into a likelihood of attribute profiles of chosen locations. An application of the method using a national travel diary dataset illustrates the approach.

Events in a sequence may each be evaluated as good or bad. We propose that such good-bad evaluations evoke emotional responses that change current mood. A model of recurrent updating of current mood is developed and compared to a model of how a sequence of events evoking emotional responses is evaluated retrospectively. In Experiment 1, 149 undergraduates are presented sequences of lottery outcomes with a fixed probability of losing or winning different amounts of money. Ratings of current mood are made after the sequence. Retrospective evaluations are either made after the ratings of current mood or, in a control condition, when no ratings of current mood are made. The results show an expected effect on current mood of the valence of the end of the sequence. The results are less clear in showing an expected beginning effect on the retrospective evaluations. An expected beginning effect on retrospective evaluations is found in Experiment 2 in which 41 undergraduates are first asked to remember the different amounts of money, then to evaluate the sequence as lottery outcomes.

This paper explores the usefulness of cumulative prospect theory (CPT), an inductive–descriptive model for how people make choices with a priori unknown consequences, in the context of travelers’ coping with unreliable transport networks through the estimation of coefficients characterizing CPT’s value and weighting functions. Attention is directed toward employed parents’ trips to collect their child(ren) from the nursery at the end of workday because of parents’ strong sensitivity to the possibility of late arrivals there. Analysis of a stated response experiment about parents’ coping with unreliable transport networks en route to the nursery provides further evidence for a series of violations of the axioms underlying expected utility theory (EUT) – a deductive–normative model of decision-making under uncertainty that is widely used in transportation studies. The results also show that linkages exist between respondents’ everyday life and their responses in the stated response experiment and, by implication, the shape of CPT’s value function. It is therefore concluded that analytical frameworks for describing activity-travel behavior in situations of unreliability, variability and uncertainty should be both psychologically and socially realistic.

This article investigates the influence of both mobility events and household events on modal shift decision for bicycle commuting using data collected from a retrospective survey in the Netherlands. The results from a mixed-logit analysis illustrate the influence of several life events on commute modal shifts in addition to changes in commute time and sociodemographic variables. Job characteristics such as changes in work status and employer, mobility resource, long-term mobility events, and household events are seen to influence commuting decision by bicycle.

Objectives This paper proposes a conceptual model of the complex relationships between travel behaviour and health. In addition it gives a research agenda providing an overview of challenges for future research. Methods We review the relevant literature in the areas of public health, land use and transportation that address issues related to health and travel and their underlying mechanisms. We do not aim to give a full review of the literature but to underpin the conceptual model. Results and conclusions We conclude that research can easily come to the ‘wrong’ conclusions if the complex causal relationships that exist between relevant factors are overlooked. In particular, ignoring contradictory effects for specific socio-demographic groups, (residential) self-selection effects, substitutions of different forms of activity, and reverse causalities may lead to overestimation of the effect of policies. For example, travel-related physical activity might interact with other physical activity, self-selection effects may influence the complex relationships between travel behaviour and health, and people׳s health may influence their walking or cycling behaviour. Based on the conceptual model we present a research agenda. A first research challenge is to explore the combined effect of travel behaviour related determinants for health effects (physical activity, air pollution intake, injuries, and subjective well-being) on health. A second challenge is exploring the interactions between travel-related physical activity and other physical activity. Thirdly, the importance of attitudes and attitude formation, specifically health-related attitudes and self-selection processes related to travel behaviour, is an important research topic. Fourthly, it is important to explore the relationship between cycling levels and injury risks, because risks seem to be correlated with cycling levels: the more people cycle, the lower the injury risks. Fifthly, we think it is important to study the relevance of walking and cycling related self-selection effects. A sixth challenge relates to transport innovations.

Research has recently questioned the commonly held opinion that travel time is valued as negative, arguing that engagement in activities during travel may make these trips more enjoyable or productive. Satisfaction with travel has to date been assessed using utility-based models or measures of productivity of the trip. The present study is the first to assess the influence of activities performed during travel on public transport users’ subjective well-being. To this end, a survey was conducted in Sweden in 2010 in which activities during the work commute by public transport were recorded and subjective well-being during travel was measured retrospectively using the Satisfaction with Travel Scale (STS). Results show that talking to other passengers has the strongest positive effect on STS, whereas activities related to entertainment and relaxation lead to lower STS, possibly since engaging in these activities reflect unsuccessful attempts to abate boredom. In addition, it is found that activities during travel may have a more positive effect on the commute back home, suggesting that the mindset related to the destination influences travel satisfaction.

Leisure travel makes up a very significant part of daily travel and therefore needs to be considered in any travel demand management or general land use and transportation policy. Yet, research into leisure mobility has tended to ignore important aspects of leisure travel, such as its joint character, i.e. its dependence on the participation of other people and the important part played by characteristics of the sites where leisure activities are conducted, as well as the link between leisure activities and the dynamics in people’s social networks. This paper introduces a relational approach to leisure activities and travel, which studies joint leisure activities and travel within the webs of relations – the assemblages of people, artefacts, as well as ideas, emotions and other immaterial phenomena – in which they are situated. Two such webs deserve particular attention: the social ties that people have with others and particular configurations of elements (buildings, infrastructure, nature, people, etc.) that collectively make up ‘places’. A key idea of our approach is that two-way connections exists between single instances of leisure and the longer term, structural phenomena of the social tie and place. We expand the relational approach in relation to the decision whether or not to engage in joint leisure and the location choice. For each dimension, we review relevant literature and elaborate the relational approach in terms of the relations among people, artefacts, other forms of materiality and the ideas, norms, affects that hold them together and circulate between them.

A survey of a random sample of 1,330 Swedish residents assessed the relationships between affect associated with performance of routine out-of-home activities, mood, and judgments of life satisfaction (cognitive subjective wellbeing, CSWB). Regression analyses showed that sociodemographic variables accounted for most variance in CSWB (7%) and least in mood (2%). In agreement with previous research, CSWB increased with income, employment, and cohabiting with a spouse, and had a U-formed relationship with age. Affect associated with routine activities accounted for more variance than the socio-demographic variables in mood (30%) and in CSWB (13%). Mood partially mediated the effect on CSWB of affect associated with the activities. The results suggest that future policy-related research should consider the possibility that community-provided resources that facilitate performance of routine out-of-home activities would increase life satisfaction.

While most models of location decisions of firms are based on the principle of utility maximizing behavior, the present study assumes that location decisions are just part of business cycle models, in which location is considered along other business decisions. The business model results in a series of location requirements and these are matched against location characteristics. Given this theoretical perspective, the modeling challenge then becomes how to find the match between firm types and the set of location characteristics using observations of the spatial distribution of firms. In this paper, several Bayesian classifier networks are compared in terms of their performance, using a large data set collected for the Netherlands. Results demonstrate that by taking relationships between predictor variables into account the Bayesian classifiers can improve prediction accuracy compared to commonly used decision tree. From a substantive point of view, our results indicate that different sets of urban characteristics and accessibility requirements are relevant to different office types as reflected in the spatial distribution of these office firms.

In this paper we develop and explore an approach to estimate dynamic models of activity generation on one-day travel-diary data. Dynamic models predict multi-day activity patterns of individuals taking into account dynamic needs as well as day-varying preferences and time-budgets. We formulate an ordered-logit model of dynamic activity-agenda-formation decisions and show how one-day observation probabilities can be derived from the model as a function of the model’s parameters and, with that, how parameters can be estimated using standard loglikelihood estimation. A scale parameter cannot be identified because information on within-person variability is lacking in one-day data. An application of the method to data from a national travel survey illustrates the method. A test on simulated data indicates that, given a pre-set scale, the parameters can be identified and that estimates are robust for a source of heterogeneity not captured in the model. This result indicates that dynamic activity-based models of the kind considered here can be estimated from data that are less costly to collect and that support the large sample sizes typically required for travel-demand modeling. We conclude therefore that the proposed approach opens up a way to develop large-scale dynamic activity-based models of travel demand.

Developments in transportation and information and communication technologies (ICTs) have facilitated the process labeled activity fragmentation. In this process, the weakened associations between activity, time, and place that ICTs made possible facilitate the disintegration of activities into smaller subtasks, which can then be performed at different times and at different locations. However, until now discussion of the fragmentation of activity hypothesis has been limited to the theoretical domain and largely absent from the empirical domain. In the study reported here we connect both domains by (1) developing a set of measures of activity fragmentation and (2) applying them to study the fragmentation of the activity of paid work using combined activity, travel, and communica- tion diary data collected in the Netherlands in 2007 in order to assess the performance of these indicators. The results show that the indicators differentiate between the multiple facets of activity fragmentation (such as the number, dispersion, and configuration of fragments). The preliminary analyses also suggest that, although the temporal fragmentation of activities appears to be or to have become more common, spatial activity fragmentation is rather limited.

This study explored the influences of location on business firm survival rates with the use of parametric duration models applied to a data set. Of the variables included, those found to be the most significant were accessibility to infrastructure supply, regional effects, demographic and economic aspects, and rent price. Analyses also were depicted by firm type (economic activity sector) along with interactions between them and some location attributes. The study led to a better understanding of firm survival patterns with respect to urban characteristics. The results presented in this paper are part of a demographic approach, which in turn is part of a multiagent system to simulate the coevolution of firm dynamics and changes in activity-travel patterns.

Recent advances in integrated land use and transport modeling have included a shift from aggregate-level modeling to disaggregate, household-level modeling. One potential advantage of this shift is that interdependencies of changes that influence household decisions can be more systematically modeled. However, existing models have not embraced this opportunity fully. Especially in the context of long-term mobility decisions (relocation/car ownership), decisions made on the basis of various dimensions are modeled as independent and cross sectional, whereas in reality they are strongly interlinked. To address these shortcomings, this paper proposes a conceptual framework that offers a more general approach to modeling the dynamics and interdependences across different time horizons of a household’s lifecycle and mobility decisions. The framework incorporates the concept of stress, defined as a discrepancy between a household’s present situation and its aspiration level, which in turn depends, among other things, on the household’s social network. Bayesian belief networks are used to represent the complex direct and indirect dependencies between life-cycle events and long- and short-term mobility decisions.

In order to investigate how public transport should be improved to appear attractive to car users, this study develops and tests an internet-based experimental simulation of travel mode choice dependent on the complexity of daily activity agendas. The results for 75 students taking part in the experimental simulation are compared to the results of a survey of another 69 students taking part in a pilot study. Students in both groups were frequent car users. The results of the survey showed that higher costs of car use and greater perceived difficulty to use public transport decreased intention to use the bus for the commute to the university. In the experimental simulation high access to bus stops increased bus use and reduced car use but less for a busy daily activity agenda when the car-use costs are low. The results highlight the importance of focusing on tradeoffs between increasing car-use costs and improvement of public transport.

Previous research demonstrates an impact on subjective well-being (SWB) of affect associated with routine performance of out-of-home activities. A primary aim of the present study is to investigate whether satisfaction with daily travel has a positive impact on SWB, either directly or indirectly through facilitating the performance of out-of-home activities. A secondary aim is to determine whether emotional-symbolic or instrumental reasons for car use results in higher satisfaction with daily travel than other travel modes. A survey of a population-based sample of 1,330 Swedish citizens included measures of car access and use, satisfaction with daily travel, satisfaction with performance of out-of-home routine activities, and affective and cognitive SWB. The results confirmed that the effect on affective and cognitive SWB of satisfaction with daily travel is both direct and indirect via satisfaction with performance of activities. Percent weekly car use had a small effect on satisfaction with daily travel and on affective SWB, although fully mediating the effect of satisfaction with performance of the activities. This suggests that car use plays a minor role for satisfaction with daily travel and its effect on SWB. This role may be larger if investigated after a forced reduced car use.

This paper addresses an exploratory study about the mediated influence of a set of location and accessibility attributes along with firm types and the effect on office firm closures. We use a proportional hazard modeling approach, examining the probability that an office firm will go out of business in any given year, conditional on the fact that it did not go out of business in the years prior, Variables include urbanization levels and regional effects; accessibility to airports, train stations, shopping centers and the roadway network; availability of parking facilities and schools; demographic and economic aspects; effects of agglomeration economies; rent price; and the type of economic activity of the office firm. Most of them presented significant information to assist in the explanation of the firm closure. Also, interaction effects between covariates and firm types brought a better understanding about the firm closure patterns in relation to urban characteristics. Assessing firm closures is an element of a firm demographic approach and overall dynamics. In turn, this is part of a multiagent system to simulate the co-evolution of firm dynamics and changes in activity-travel patterns.

Analysis of household activity scheduling has to date been limited to one-day periods. This paper extends the study of household task allocation to a one-week period. Using a one-week time use survey held under couples in The Netherlands in 2003, the paper proposes indicators for measuring task allocation on a daily and weekly scale and investigates to what extent role expectations, work status and indicators of time pressure influence task allocation patterns. The outcomes suggest that egalitarian role expectations and higher female work status lead to a more balanced allocation of work and households tasks between spouses. More traditional role views and increased time pressure lead to more specialisation and inequality between spouses. Interestingly, households under time pressure apply day-to-day specialisation to arrive at balanced weekly allocation totals.

Although microeconomic models of the trade-off between time and money expenditures exist, these have been applied primarily in theoretical or simplified empirical settings. Yet, studying how time and money are traded off against each other in the context of daily activity patterns is crucial because of relationships that exist between activities and between various dimensions of one activity and because of increasing importance of the quality of places and facilities. To facilitate the analysis of expenditures, a theoretical framework was developed; it suggests that money can be invested directly into activities and indirectly into the facilities that support the activities (dwellings, transport, telecommunication devices). Focusing on the trade-off between various types of fixed expenditures (related to facilities) and daily expenditures, an exploratory analysis was carried out by using a 1996 Dutch data set. The analysis revealed that expenditure decisions are influenced by such factors as education level, age, frequency of social interactions, nationality, presence of children, and monthly income. In addition, a substitution effect is found between daily expenditures and expenditures to the dwelling, transport, and telecommunication.

This paper reports the main findings of a study conducted to improve the applicability of motif search to identify segments in activity-travel sequences. The improvement concerns the provision of a statistical criterion of identifying motifs as the key structural information of activity sequencing and simultaneous decisions of activity implementation. The suggested approach is applied to the data, originally collected using the interactive computerized procedure MAGIC to estimate the Simulation Model of Activity Scheduling Heuristics (SMASH) model. The results of the application illustrate that the suggested motif search method depicts the key structural information of activity patterns of a group and distinguishes among different patterns. The paper details the findings and ends with conclusions and a discussion.

This paper investigates the travel time attributed to each activity in a trip chain by developing a travel-time price for multiple-purpose trips. Travel-time price is a ratio of the associated travel time of an activity to the activity duration. The travel-time price developed here has three characteristics. First, it accounts for the influence of sociodemographics and urban form characteristics on travel time. Second, it represents the intra-activity trade-off of travel time between activity duration and its associated travel time for different activity types. Third, it represents the interactivity trade-off of travel time between different types of activities. By using the data from the AMADEUS activity-travel diary collected in the Netherlands in 2000, a regression analysis was carried out for multiple-purpose trips stemming from one base, and the results were compared with those of an analysis of single-purpose trips from one base. The focus was on weekday, nonwork, out-of-home activities performed by heads of households. This daily activity behavior is interpreted as an outcome of the long-term decisions made about work and housing locations. The results indicated that, although multiple-purpose trips are not as common, they are more efficient than single-purpose trips. Sociodemographics and spatial characteristics were not statistically significant for the travel-time price of maintenance activities but were mostly significant for discretionary activities. In addition, nonwork out-of-home travel time is largely influenced by the duration of discretionary activities, gender, working hours, and the spatial setting.

This paper provides an example of the application of an individual space–time activity-based model (ISTAM) to the simulation of the transmission of infectious disease in Eemnes, a city in The Netherlands. Four questions were addressed: (i) how to build the whole population at the city level, (ii) how to build the structure of the activity bundles for the city, (iii) how to assign daily activity patterns to each individual, and (iv) how to simulate within-AB transmission. The model was calibrated and examples of simulation results such as dynamics of the population during a whole day, infection distribution and network analysis are presented.

This paper develops a model of activity and trip scheduling that combines three elements that have to date mostly been investigated in isolation: the duration of activities, the time-of-day preference for activity participation and the effect of schedule delays on the valuation of activities. The model is an error component discrete choice model, describing individuals’ choice between alternative workday activity patterns. The utility function is formulated in a flexible way, applying a bell-shaped component to represent time-of-day preferences for activities. The model was tested using a 2001 data set from the Netherlands. The estimation results suggest that time-of-day preferences and schedule delays associated with the work activity are the most important factors influencing the scheduling of the work tour. Error components included in the model suggest that there is considerable unobserved heterogeneity with respect to mode preferences and schedule delay.

Recently, several accessibility measures using the space–time prism concept have been suggested in the literature. These measures fail to take into account (i) the ability of individuals to adjust their activity–travel patterns in coping with constrained choice sets, (ii) uncertainty in the perception of travel times, (iii) temporal variability of travel times, and (iv) the influence of travel information on accessibility. The aim of the present article is to contribute to this literature by addressing these four shortcomings. Theory will be developed and illustrated using numerical simulations. The results suggest that the accessibility measure proposed in this article is a useful indicator of social inclusion in terms of the time individuals can spend to conduct their preferred activities. Moreover, accessibility is found to be affected by the presence of schedule delay penalties, restrictions in time allocation to activities, and the provision of travel time information in order to reduce uncertainty.

This paper investigates the relationship between multitasking during travel and the valuation of travel time (VOT). By building on the literature on travel time valuation and multitasking, both the attitude toward multitasking and actual multitasking behavior are hypothesized to have a potential impact on the VOT. The basic assumption is that if travel time can be used for other purposes or if it becomes more enjoyable as it is increasingly accommodated by information and communication technology tools, travel time is valued less negatively, and the VOT will be lower. To test these hypotheses, a stated preference survey was carried out among commuters in the Dutch Eindhoven region. With estimated discrete choice models, the analyses indicate that monochronic individuals, who dislike engaging in activities simultaneously, have a higher VOT, as one would expect. Commuters who listen to music while commuting have a lower VOT. Commuters who read for their work while commuting have a higher VOT, probably related to a more task-oriented attitude. Overall, the findings suggest that actual multitasking behavior and attitudes toward multitasking have a significant impact on the VOT and cannot be neglected in policy analyses.

We argue that people think more about the short-term individual benefits of personal motorized travel than the long-term societal costs. One explanation is that people are more concerned about their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of their close relatives than the well-being of unknown others. Another explanation is that people have less knowledge of the long-term societal costs than of the short-term individual benefits. Research findings documenting long-term societal costs may increase this knowledge if accurately conveyed by governments, mass media, producers and providers of travel services, and opinion leaders. We identify several obstacles to such an accurate dissemination of research findings that need to be removed.

Before you lies the 2006 TRB (Transportation Research Board) Special Issue of Transportation comprising selected papers presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the TRB in sessions sponsored by the Travel Behavior and Values committee on activity-travel decision processes. We are pleased to serve as editors of this Special Issue. The Special Issue is the outcome of a partnership between Transportation and the TRB, a division of the National Research Council, which serves the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in the United States. This partnership builds on TRB’s commitment to build bridges that help disseminate cutting edge research and state-of-the-art solutions in transportation to a worldwide audience. It involves two standing committees of TRB’s Division A (Technical Activities): the Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values ABD10) and the Committee on Travel Demand Forecasting (ADB40).

A negative effect of congestion that tends to be overlooked is travel time uncertainty. Travel time uncertainty causes scheduling costs due to early or late arrival. The negative effects of travel time uncertainty can be reduced by providing travellers with travel time information, which improves their estimate of the expected travel time, thereby reducing scheduling costs. In order to assess the negative effects of uncertainty and the benefits of travel time information, this paper proposes a conceptual model of departure time choice under travel time uncertainty and information. The model is based on expected utility theory, and includes the variation in travel time, the quality of travel time information and travellers’ perception of the travel time. The model is illustrated by an application to the case of the A2 motorway between Beesd and Utrecht in the Netherlands.

This paper describes a discrete continuous Tobit model of activity participation and duration. The model extends existing models by accounting for multiple activities and the effect of travel time needed for activity participation on time allocation. The effect of travel time was operationalized by incorporating the travel time ratio into the time allocation procedure. The model was tested on a Dutch data set and appears to outperform less advanced models. The model provides a useful tool for assessing the effect of spatial and transportation policies on individuals’ time allocation and their ability to realize so-called latent activities.

Traffic information is increasingly regarded as a tool to achieve a more efficient use of the road network. As traffic information is often applied in the context of routitine trips, the question arises how travellers integrate traffic information with the knowledge of travel conditions gained through daily experience. To describe this process, the paper proposes a model of perception updating of travel times in the context of departure time decisions. The model applies a CHAID-based classification algorithm to describe how travellers classify trips made under various conditions (departure time and presence of traffic information) into mental classes with comparable expectations in terms of travel time. Thus, it is assumed that the learning process depends on a set of conditions, one of which is the available travel time information. The model is tested through a series of numerical experiments. The results suggest that the model describes learning and adaptation behaviour in a plausible way. Through increased experience, perception of travel times is improved, and more departure time classes are distinguished. However, this does not seem to lead to shorter travel times or higher trip utilities. Also the presence of travel time information may be, depending on the history of trip outcomes, distinguished as a significant indicator of the expected travel time. We conclude that the nrodel provides a good starting point for the further development of learning and adaptation models in the context of lTS.

A model of timing and duration of activities and travel is outlined. The model assumes that marginal utility derived from activities encompasses two distinct components, one derived from duration of activity involvement and the other derived from activity participation at a particular time of day. To test travelers' responses to road-pricing schemes, an operational model is developed and calibrated on a stated-preference data set collected in a previous study in London. The estimation results suggest that utility derived from work is partly duration dependent and partly time-of-day dependent. A model in which the duration-dependent marginal utility is described by a logarithmic function and the time-of-day-dependent marginal utility is described by a Cauchy function provides the best description of trip and activity timing. The model is used to evaluate the effect of various pricing schemes for the estimation sample. The predictions suggest that pricing policies have a considerable impact on commuters' trip and activity scheduling, involving shifts to earlier and later departure times. Also discussed are the implications of the model for value-of-time estimates. The results indicate that the value of time changes through the day depending on the utility profiles of the activities.

Development of a model of departure choice behavior in the context of activity-travel scheduling behavior is reported. Based on a brief characterization of the literature, some key properties of the desired model are identified. Then, the theoretical framework is outlined and an operational model is derived. Next, the model is estimated with activity-travel diary data, collected in the context of the Albatross model system. The results are promising. Avenues of future research are discussed.

Travel is a form of unsustainable consumption resulting from the Western lifestyle societies allow, encourage or occasionally seem to force citizens to adopt. In the Handbook of Sustainable Travel we disseminate current research findings of both the positive and negative sides of travel. We primarily target readers who are not active researchers of travel behaviour (many of whom are chapter authors) – but other specialists including researchers in environmental science as well as politicians and journalists who have a professional need for reviews, analyses, and syntheses of research findings.

This paper introduces a first step towards analyzing tourist travel choice in situations where tourists may: (i) temporally separate their choice of different components of the travel package, e.g. tourists may choose travel destination before accommodation, and (ii) face a structure of constraints that limits their choice options, e.g. tourists may be restricted by school holidays when choosing the period in which to travel. Theoretical insights with regard to tourist travel, destination and activity choices are reviewed as a basis for the proposed conceptual framework. An exploratory empirical study of the proposed framework is given and implications are discussed.

We argue that the general public and politicians think more about the short-term individual benefits of travel than they think about the long-term societal costs. One explanation is that they have less knowledge of the latter than they have of the former. Another explanation is that they like people in general are more concerned about their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of their close relatives than they are concerned about the well-being of unknown others. Yet, in a democratic society changes towards sustainable travel are not likely to materialize unless people shift their thinking about travel to placing a higher weight on its long-term societal costs than the short-term benefits. Research findings documenting these costs may affect the general public only if they are accurately conveyed by different sources including governments, mass media, producers and providers of travel services, and other people. We identify many current obstacles to this in need to be removed.