Activity involvement and time spent on computers for leisure: an econometric analysis on the American Time Use Survey dataset

Internet is capturing more and more of our time each day, and the increasing levels of engagement are mainly due to the use of social media. Time spent on social media is observed in the American Time Use Survey and recorded as leisure time on Personal Computer (PC). In this paper, we extend the traditional analysis of leisure activity participation by including leisure activities that require the use of a PC. We study the substitution effects with both in-home and out-of-home leisure activities and the time budget allocated to each of them. The modeling framework that includes both discrete alternatives and continuous decision variables allow for full correlation across the utility of the alternatives that are all of leisure type and the regressions that model the time allocated to each activity. Results show that there is little substitution effect between leisure with PC and the relative time spent on it, with in-home and out-of-home leisure episodes. Households with more children and full-time workers are more likely to engage in in-home and PC related leisure activities (especially during weekends). Increments in the travel time of social trips result in significant reductions in leisure time during weekdays.     

Assessing the representativeness of a smartphone-based household travel survey in Dar es Salaam,Tanzania

The household travel survey (HTS) finds itself in the midst of rapid technological change. Traditional methods are increasingly being sidelined by digital devices and computational power—for tracking movements, automatically detecting modes and activities, facilitating data collection, etc.. Smartphones have recently emerged as the latest technological enhancement. FMS is a smartphone-based prompted-recall HTS platform, consisting of an app for sensor data collection, a backend for data processing and inference, and a user interface for verification of inferences (e.g., modes, activities, times, etc.). FMS, has been deployed in several cities of the global north, including Singapore. This paper assesses the first use of FMS in a city of the global south, Dar es Salaam. FMS in Dar was implemented over a 1-month period, among 581 adults chosen from 300 randomly selected households. Individuals were provided phones with data plans and the FMS app preloaded. Verification of the collected data occurred every 3 days, via a phone interview. The experiment reveals various social and technical challenges. Models of individual likelihood to participate suggest little bias. Several socioeconomic and demographic characteristics apparently do influence, however, the number of days fully verified per individual. Similar apparent biases emerge when predicting the likelihood of a given day being verified. Some risk of non-random, non-response is, thus, evident.     

荷坳隧道四洞小净距段支护结构设计研究北大核心CSCD

多洞空间小净距隧道支护结构参数量化设计与安全性分析是当前设计中的一大难题。文章针对深圳机荷高速公路荷坳隧道四洞小净距段的设计,采用总安全系数法对四洞的开挖与支护模式、各洞的开挖顺序及支护参数进行了研究比较,并采用隧规荷载-结构法、增量法、地层-结构法对支护结构的安全系数进行了对比计算,得出以下结论:(1)提出了基于总安全系数法原理的多洞空间小净距隧道设计方法;(2)根据总安全系数法得出了荷坳隧道四洞小净距段应采用“先行洞二次衬砌完成后再开挖下一孔隧道”的开挖与支护模式,且应按洞1→洞2→洞3→洞4的开挖顺序施工;(3)隧规荷载-结构法、增量法、地层-结构法虽无法得出结构的总承载安全系数,但在一定程度上可以反应部分支护结构的安全性。     

Comparative analysis of household car,motorcycle and bicycle ownership between Osaka metropolitan area,Japan and Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia

The interactions among different types of vehicle ownership including car, motorcycle and bicycle are examined by developing simultaneous vehicle ownership models in this study. Large scale person trip survey data for Osaka metropolitan area, Japan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are used for empirical analysis. The results suggest that population density at residential area significantly and negatively affects car ownership for both areas, and that the effects are larger for Osaka metropolitan area than for Kuala Lumpur. Also, bicycle ownership becomes higher at higher population density area for Osaka area, while higher at lower population density area for Kuala Lumpur, which represents the different usage patterns of bicycle between the two areas.

Time taken for residents to adopt a new public transport service: examining heterogeneity through duration modelling

When a new public transport service is introduced it would be valuable for public authorities, financing organisations and transport operators to know how long it will take for people to start to use the service and what factors influence this. This paper presents results from research analysing the time taken for residents living close to a new guided bus service to start to use (or adopt) the service. Data was obtained from a sample of residents on whether they used the new service and the number of weeks after the service was introduced before they first used it. Duration modelling has been used to analyse how the likelihood of starting to use the new service changes over time (after the introduction of the service) and to examine what factors influence this. It is found that residents who have not used the new service are increasingly unlikely to use it as time passes. Those residents gaining greater accessibility benefits from the new service are found to be quicker to use the service, although the size of this effect is modest compared to that of other between-resident differences. Allowance for the possibility that there existed a proportion of the sample that would never use the new service was tested using a split population model (SPD) model. The SPD model indicates that 36% of residents will never use the new service and is informative in differentiating factors that influence whether Route 20 is used and when it is used.

The influence of parents’ travel patterns,perceptions and residential self-selectivity to their children travel mode shares

Using the UK National Travel Survey from 2002 to 2006, this paper investigates the influence of households’ residential self-selectivity, parents’ perceptions on accessibilities and their travel patterns on their children daily travel mode share. In doing this, this study introduces a model structure that represents the complex interactions between the parents’ travel patterns, their perceptions on public transport services and their reported residential self-selectivity reasons and the children travel mode shares. This structure is analysed with structural equation modelling. The model estimation results show that parents’ residential self-selectivity, parents’ perceptions and satisfactions on accessibilities and their daily travel patterns significantly influence the children’s daily travel mode shares. However, the effects are not uniform across household members. This study has revealed that households’ residential self-selectivity behaviours have more correlations with the children’s non-motorised mode shares, whilst the parents’ perceptions and satisfactions on transport infrastructure and public transport service qualities have more correlations with parents’ mode shares. The results also confirm that parents’ non-motorised modes use in travelling is highly correlated with the children’s physically active travel mode shares. However, at the same time, the results also show that the effects of mothers’ car use to the children travel mode shares is more apparent than fathers’.     

Mathematical model for optimising the sequence for clearing snow from the manoeuvring area during winter operations

This article considers the optimisation of the sequence for clearing snow from stretches of the manoeuvring area of an airport. This issue involves the optimisation of limited resources to remove snow from taxiways and runways thereby leaving them in an acceptable condition for operating aircraft. The airfield is divided into subsets of significant stretches for the purpose of operations and target times are established during which these are open to aircraft traffic. The document contains several mathematical models each with different functions, such as the end time of the process, the sum of the end times of each stretch and gap between the estimated and the real end times. During this process, we introduce different operating restrictions on partial fulfilment of the operational targets as applied to zones of special interest, or relating to the operation of the snow‐clearing machines. The problem is solved by optimisation based on linear programming. The article gives the results of the computational tests carried out on five distinct models of the manoeuvring area, which cover increasingly complex situations and larger areas. The mathematical model is particularised for the case of the manoeuvring area of Adolfo Suarez Madrid—Barajas Airport. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Highlights
• Optimal sequence for clearing snow from the manoeuvring area of an airport.
• Contains optimising algorithms solved using CPLEX LP‐based tree search.
• Restrictions on partial fulfilment of operational targets applied to subsets of significant stretches, used for planning the operation of snow‐clearing machines.
• Model applied to the case of the manoeuvring area of Adolfo Suárez Madrid Barajas Airport.
• Conclusions are given on the results of the computational tests carried out. There are five models of the manoeuvring area which cover increasingly complex situations and larger areas.

     

Trip generation of vulnerable populations in three Canadian cities: a spatial ordered probit approach

This paper provides an analysis of trip generation of three vulnerable groups: single-parent families, low income households, and the elderly. It compares the mobility of these groups to that of the general population in three Canadian urban areas of Hamilton, Montreal and Toronto, based on data from large-sample metropolitan transport surveys. An ordered probit model with spatially expanded coefficients is used for the analysis. Spatial expansion shows that there are spatial mobility trends for elderly populations and low-income populations even after socio-economic attributes are accounted for. Such spatial differences are not generally found for single parent families. This novel spatial analysis provides clues as to where vulnerable populations may experience greater degrees of social exclusion. It provides information to help prioritize transportation infrastructure projects or other social programs to take into account the needs of vulnerable populations with the lowest levels of mobility.     

Semiparametric specification of the utility function in a travel mode choice model

We propose a semiparametric approach that can capture the nonlinearity of deterministic components of the utility functions in discrete choice models and demonstrate it by analyzing travel mode choice behaviour for an interregional trip. The proposed smoothing spline-based specification method can be used to make ex ante evaluations regarding the parametric specifications of the deterministic utility functions in discrete choice models.     

An exploratory analysis of joint-activity participation characteristics using the American time use survey

This paper presents a detailed exploratory analysis of joint activity participation characteristics using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). As a very large nationwide survey that explicitly elicited information on both household and non-household companions for each activity episode, the ATUS is ideally suited for this analysis. Several intuitive and interesting results are obtained. Joint episodes are found to be of longer durations, significantly likely to take place at the residence of other people, and often confined to certain time periods of the weekday. In addition, important differences in these characteristics are also observed based on activity purpose, companion type, and the day of the week. These findings are intended to provide the basis for the justification of detailed collection of joint activity–travel participation information in household activity–travel surveys, and also as a stimulant for further empirical analysis and modeling of joint activity participation behavior.