Regimes in social–cultural events-driven activity sequences: Modelling approach and empirical application

In this study we propose and apply a Bayesian-network model to predict and analyse the factors that influence activity-travel sequences that are triggered by social–cultural events. The study is motivated by the intention to examine the wider context in which activity-travel decisions are made and to model such decisions under longitudinal time horizons. We assume that social events trigger a series of interrelated activities and corresponding trips. Data about events and related activities are collected using a month-diary and involving a large sample of households in the Eindhoven region, The Netherlands. A learning algorithm is applied to derive a Bayesian-network model from the event diary. The results show that indeed many travel choices are influenced by particular events, that these influences vary by socio-demographic variables and that the learned Bayesian-network model is able to represent these interdependencies among all these variables. We demonstrate how the model can be used to predict event-driven activity-travel sequences in a micro-simulation.     

Teleworking in the Netherlands: an evaluation of changes in travel behaviour

This article describes the first experiment on teleworking in the Netherlands, and presents the results of an analysis of the impact of teleworking on the travel behaviour of the participants in the experiment and their household members. It was concluded that teleworking has resulted in a significant decrease in the total number of trips by teleworkers (–17%). Peak-hour traffic by car has been reduced even more (–26%). An unexpected result was that the household members of the teleworkers also appeared to travel less than before the experiment.     

Context-dependent influence of road attributes and pricing policies on route choice behavior of truck drivers: results of a conjoint choice experiment

In this paper, we report the results of a stated choice experiment, which was conducted to examine truck drivers?? route choice behavior. Of particular interest are the questions (i) what is the relative importance of road accessibility considerations via-a-vis traditional factors influencing route choice behavior, (ii) what are the influences of particular personal and situational variables on the evaluation of route attributes, (iii) how sensitive are truck drivers for possible pricing policies, and (iv) is there a difference in impact if environmental concerns are framed as a bonus or as a pricing instrument. The main findings indicate that road accessibility characteristics have a substantial impact on route preferences which is of the same order of magnitude as variation in travel times. This suggests that provision of adequate travel information in itself can be an effective instrument to prevent negative externalities of good transport associated with shortest routes. Furthermore, the results indicate that truck drivers/route planners when choosing a route are relatively sensitive to road pricing schemes and rather insensitive to environmental bonuses.     

Understanding urban mobility patterns from a spatiotemporal perspective: daily ridership profiles of metro stations

Transportation - Smart card data derived from automatic fare collection (AFC) systems of public transit enable us to study resident movement from a macro perspective. The rhythms of traffic...     

Prevalence of alternative processing rules in the formation of daily travel satisfaction in the context multi-trip,multi-stage,multi-attribute travel experiences

Transportation - Requesting respondents to provide satisfaction ratings for multi-stage trips or daily travel experiences implies they have to value each stage, respectively trip, based on memory...     

The prevalence of context-dependent adjustment of activity-travel patterns in energy conservation strategies: results from a mixture-amount stated adaptation experiment

People’s adaptive behaviour to increasing energy prices has been studied at length in transportation research. Prior research however has not addressed research questions concerning the contribution of travel-related changes in more encompassing energy conservation strategies. Moreover, context-dependency and choice under constraints has not been studies at any length. In this paper, we therefore report the results of a context-dependent elaboration of a mixture amount choice experiment to measure context-dependent responses to accumulative energy charges under budget constraints. Accounting for consumer heterogeneity in adaptive response behaviour, mixed logit analysis is used to analyse the extent and nature of adaptations of activity-travel behaviour and resource allocation in response to increasing energy costs. The results indicate that individuals are inclined to compensate for increased expenditures on energy due to price increases. Moreover, results show the existence of significant heterogeneity among respondents in terms of their adaptation strategies to various energy-saving choices.     

An integrated model system and policy evaluation tool for maximizing mobility under environmental capacity constraints: A case study in Dalian City,China

This paper presents an integrated model system for mobility maximization based on a quantified specification of environmental capacity, and evaluates policy interaction and effectiveness by simulating a number of policy scenarios. The system is designed to specify the maximum level of car ownership and number of trips by private and public modes subject to an environmental capacity constraint defined as the frontier emission under maximum system efficiency. Four types of hypothetical policies (population change, urban sprawl, land-use pattern and network improvement) are designed and the effects of 13 policy scenarios are simulated using data of Dalian City, China. Results reveal that the integrated model system reacts sensitively to policy interventions. The urban sprawl reflected in a changing residential distribution from central to suburban areas is most instrumental from the perspective of pollution alleviation. If the goal is to simultaneously reduce emissions while accommodating mobility, two combinational policy scenarios outperform all others.     

Turn taking behavior in dual earner households with children: a focus on escorting routines

Transportation - This article discusses results of a study on turn taking behavior in escorting children in dual-earner households. Using a multinomial logit model, the probability of different...     

Developing a safer road user behaviour index

Road user behaviour is an essential factor of increasing the rate of traffic accidents worldwide. Road safety experts and scientists consider aspects of road users' behaviour to be the main risk factors for road fatalities. These factors include drinking alcohol, speeding, not wearing seat belts, not wearing helmets when riding two-wheeled vehicles, not using child restraints, consuming illegal drugs, and being distracted by mobile phone use. This paper aims to investigate the role of these factors in assessing the road user behaviour through aggregating them and build a composite indicator that can be used in countries benchmarking and cross countries comparison, then identifying most successful practises. To achieve this aim, data related to the selected indicators, life-saving rate, and real crash data were collected. The indicators were weighted using simple and theoretical methods. The weighted indicators were aggregated using simple additive method. The developed index was applied to 12 European countries to test the validation of the index through investigation the correlation between index’ ranking of countries with the ranking according to the rate of fatalities. It is concluded that the developed composite indicator can be used to assess the role of using the protection system and speeding in the severity of the road crashes. However, the role of the remaining factors in the likelihood of crashes occurrence needs more investigation. It can be concluded also that the road users' behaviour is not the only factor of reducing the road fatalities in some countries. This enhances the multidimensional system approach of defining the road safety. Based on this, it is recommended to consider other factors in conducting research, developing indices of road safety, and in recommending solutions. The results show also that the UK, Sweden, Ireland and Ireland have the most successful strategies to improve the road user behaviour among the selected countries; therefore, it is recommended to take lessons from these practices.