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Recent methods to measure multimodality only consider the diversity and evenness of mode use, while ignoring that the classification of transport modes also matters. This study proposes a multigroup multimodality index to measure the extent of being multimodal at both single mode and mode group levels in a nested manner. The index is compared with the two most commonly used indices, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index and the Shannon Entropy index, to assess its reliability and improvement over existing approaches. Results show that the multigroup multimodality index can simultaneously distinguish the degree of being multimodal at both mode level and group level, which addresses the classification issue in measuring multimodality.

Peak-avoidance has been suggested as a strategy to ease congestion and improve the travel experience in the road traffic system. However, commuters’ trade-offs when choosing whether to avoid the peak in the context of subway use have not yet been explored. In highly concentrated megacities, high demand during peak hours in the subway leads to long queues waiting to enter stations or platforms, as well as crowded trains, which yields highly negative externalities. This paper contextualizes and incorporates commuters’ perceived value as a theoretical basis to explain how perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices affect commuters’ intentions to avoid the peak in subway systems. A hybrid model was constructed to incorporate the perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices as latent variables to understand peak-avoidance behavior. Social norms, previous habits, and personal subjective feelings have significant impacts on subway commuters’ peak-avoidance decisions. In addition, our combined model improved the explanatory power compared to a traditional ordered logit model. The framework can be used as a theoretical basis for further development of behavioral research into commuters’ decision-making. Finally, these findings provide meaningful guidance for the government and subway companies to encourage travelers to avoid rush hours effectively.

This paper reports on the effects of an e-cycling stimulation program on travel satisfaction in the province of North-Brabant, the Netherlands. The program was designed to stimulate car-commuters to shift to e-bike in daily commuting, earning a monetary incentive for each kilometre e-cycled. With a longitudinal design, this study shows a significant increase in travel satisfaction when switching from car to e-bike. Starting from an average slightly positive satisfaction with car commuting, participants reported an extremely positive expected travel satisfaction by e-bike. Although a bit less than expected, the experienced travel satisfaction with e-cycling was high after a period of a month and even increased in the following period of half a year. Where the participants can be sub-divided into car-only and multi-modal car-commuters, this distinction does not show in the experienced travel satisfaction with e-cycling. Our study indicates that the hedonic treadmill mechanism does not automatically apply to the satisfaction with e-cycling. Multivariate analyses suggest that the increase in the travel satisfaction is affected by self-reported health, car ownership, urbanization degree, whether car use and e-cycling are experienced as strenuous, congestion on the route and the attractiveness of the cycle route.

In this paper, we argue that the current focus on cycling must not neglect the need to improve public transport services for the large number of people who do not want to or are unable to cycle. An ...

Although interest in the concept of tradable driving credits (TDC) has increased in recent years, empirical research into the potential effects of such a measure is scarce. The study reported in this paper employed an activity-based approach to investigate drivers’ responses to two distance-based TDC scenarios. Three hundred and eight Dutch frequent car commuters participated in an online stated adaptation experiment in which they recorded their car use for 7 days and, in response to the TDC scenarios, had the opportunity to reorganise their car use pattern, if desired. This paper investigates adaptation behaviours at the trip level. The results show that approximately 30% of trips made for maintenance and leisure-oriented activities were subject to change. In cases of change, a travel mode change was the most preferred adaptation strategy. A mixed logit modelling framework is used to test the effect of a variety of activity/trip attributes, TDC scenario attributes, and individual characteristics on the preference for adaptation alternatives.

Congestion is a major problem for peak-hour commuters in the Beijing subway system, as it leads to long queuing times and overcrowded vehicles. This paper explores to what extent peak travel can be reduced by providing incentives for peak avoidance. In a stated preference study, travellers’ responses to two financial and two non-financial incentives were measured, and factors increasing or limiting the response were identified. Our results suggest that all four incentives can be reasonably effective tools and the financial incentives seem to have a slightly stronger effect than the services and credit-for-gifts-based scenarios. Ordered logit models indicate that various factors influence people’s receptiveness of incentives for peak avoidance which relate to the ease of change or presence of alternatives and receptiveness to incentives. Both theoretical and policy implications are concluded that the proposed factors and incentive system can help solving the subway congestion in Beijing.

With the continuous advancement of (mobile) ICT devices and applications, their impact on travel, activities and time use becomes more diverse. This holds in particular for apps developed for mobile devices (smartphones). In this paper, we argue that the effect of ICT on travel and activities should be analysed at the level of a single specific device or application, rather than for broad classes of ICT devices. We propose activity theory as a framework to analyse the impact of smartphone apps on travel and activities. Activity theory describes how subjects apply tools (such as apps) to work on an object and achieve an outcome that is in line with the subject’s motive. The application of the tool is embedded in an activity system which includes a community, formal and informal rules and in which a division of labour exists. We apply activity theory to analyse the effects of Whatsapp and travel feedback apps, based on existing literature about these apps. The analyses suggest that the activity systems of each app differ greatly in terms of object, motive, outcomes, community and rules, with implications for their use and impact. Both apps have an impact on travel, but differ with respect to whether this effect is intentional. For both apps contradictions in the activity system can be identified, which may give rise to further development of the activity system. These seem, however, to be largest for travel feedback apps. Based on our exploration, we argue that quantitative research on the impact of apps should be complemented by qualitative research based on activity theory. In particular, activity theory may help to gain a better understanding of underlying mechanism by which apps influence travel, to strengthen the theoretical underpinning and interpretation of the results of quantitative research and to explore changes in the development and use of apps and their impact on travel behaviour.

Introduction Previous longitudinal studies indicate that physical activity (PA) significantly declines from primary-to secondary school, and report both changes in individual and environmental determinants of PA. In order to understand this transition and to prevent this negative trend, it is important to gather contextually rich data on possible mechanisms that drive this decline. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate changes of PA patterns in transition between primary and secondary school, and to add domain-specific insights of how, where, and when these changes occur. Methods In total, 175 children participated in a 7-day accelerometer- and Global Positioning System (GPS) protocol at their last year of primary and their first year of secondary school. GPS data-points were overlaid with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) data using ArcGIS 10.1 software. Based on the GPS locations of individual data-points, we identified child’s PA at home, school, local sports grounds, shopping centers, and other locations. Also, trips in active and passive transport were identified according to previously validated GPS speed-algorithms. Longitudinal multi-level linear mixed models were fitted adjusting for age, gender, meteorological circumstances, and the nested structure of days within children and children within schools. Outcome measures were minutes spent in light PA and moderate-to-vigorous PA, specified for the time-segments before school, during school, after school and weekend days. Results Total PA significantly declined from primary to secondary school. Although transport-related PA increased before- and during school, decreases were found for especially afterschool time spent at sports grounds and transport-related PA during weekends. Conclusions This is the first study that demonstrated longitudinal changes of context- and domain-specific PA patterns in transition between primary and secondary school, based on device-assessed PA. Given the importance of this transition-period for the development of long-term PA patterns, results from this study warrant the development of evidence-based PA programs in this transition period, while acknowledging the integrative role of schools, parents, and afterschool sports providers. More specifically, the results underline the need to increase children’s PA levels in primary schools, promote afterschool PA at secondary schools, and to prevent the drop-out in sports participation at secondary schools.

BACKGROUND It is unclear why some physical activity (PA) mobile health (mHealth) interventions successfully promote PA whereas others do not. One possible explanation is the variety in PA mHealth interventions—not only do interventions differ in the selection of persuasive strategies but also the design and implementation of persuasive strategies can vary. However, limited studies have examined the different designs and technical implementations of strategies or explored if they indeed influenced the effectiveness of the intervention. OBJECTIVE This scoping review sets out to explore the different technical implementations and design characteristics of common and likely most effective persuasive strategies, namely, goal setting, monitoring, reminders, rewards, sharing, and social comparison. Furthermore, this review aims to explore whether previous mHealth studies examined the influence of the different design characteristics and technical operationalizations of common persuasive strategies on the effectiveness of the intervention to persuade the user to engage in PA. METHODS An unsystematic snowball and gray literature search was performed to identify the literature that evaluated the persuasive strategies in experimental trials (eg, randomized controlled trial, pre-post test). Studies were included if they targeted adults, if they were (partly) delivered by a mobile system, if they reported PA outcomes, if they used an experimental trial, and when they specifically compared the effect of different designs or implementations of persuasive strategies. The study methods, implementations, and designs of persuasive strategies, and the study results were systematically extracted from the literature by the reviewers. RESULTS A total of 29 experimental trials were identified. We found a heterogeneity in how the strategies are being implemented and designed. Moreover, the findings indicated that the implementation and design of the strategy has an influence on the effectiveness of the PA intervention. For instance, the effectiveness of rewarding was shown to vary between types of rewards; rewarding goal achievement seems to be more effective than rewarding each step taken. Furthermore, studies comparing different ways of goal setting suggested that assigning a goal to users might appear to be more effective than letting the user set their own goal, similar to using adaptively tailored goals as opposed to static generic goals. This study further demonstrates that only a few studies have examined the influence of different technical implementations on PA behavior. CONCLUSIONS The different implementations and designs of persuasive strategies in mHealth interventions should be critically considered when developing such interventions and before drawing conclusions on the effectiveness of the strategy as a whole. Future efforts are needed to examine which implementations and designs are most effective to improve the translation of theory-based persuasive strategies into practical delivery forms.

Although cycling attracts increasing attention being an active and healthy way of transport, understanding the determinants of cycling experience is still a challenge. The current study addressed this challenge by exploring how various parameters (i.e. static and moving elements) of the environment influence cycling experience in a simulated Virtual Reality (VR) world. Different scenarios were created mirroring the streetscape of a real Dutch city. The scenarios were designed in such a way that we have a full crossing of the manipulated factors, namely, static (bicycle path presence, crossroad presence) and moving elements (cars, pedestrians, other cyclists intensity). After having a bike ride, participants had to provide their evaluation on the just experienced environment, in terms of safety and enjoyment perception. Naturalness, presence, engagement and liking of the VR environment were also addressed.The results are clear in showing that safety perception depends on whether bicycle path and crossroads are present. Enjoyment however did not show statistical differences in respect to the above factors. Concerning moving elements, car intensity influenced both, safety and enjoyment perception. Current results are discussed in line with the existing theories on cycling experience. We further focus attention at how well-known VR applications might enhance experience and thus opening avenues to appropriately investigate everyday context scenarios, outside research laboratories and specialist environments.

In order to better understand the movement of an object with respect to a region, we propose a formal model of the evolving spatial relationships that transition between local topologies with respect to a trajectory and a region as well as develop a querying mechanism to analyze movement patterns. We summarize 12 types of local topologies built on trajectory-region intersections, and derive their transition graph; then we capture and model evolving local topologies with two types of trajectory-region strings, a movement string and a stop-move string. The stop-move string encodes the stop information further during a trajectory than the movement string. Such a string-format expression of trajectory-region movement, although conceptually simple, carries unprecedented information for effectively interpreting how trajectories move with respect to regions. We also design the corresponding Finite State Automations for a movement string as well as a stop-move string, which are used not only to recognize the language of trajectory-region strings, but also to deal effectively with trajectory-region pattern queries. When annotated with the time information of stops and intersections, a trajectory-region movement snapshot and its evolution during a time interval can be inferred, and even the relationships among trajectories with respect to the same region can be explored.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The advance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has changed travellers’ appreciation of travel distance in various ways. In the context of telecommuting, ICT increasingly allows us to work from home one or more days per week. One hypothesis that has been put forward is that because ICTs reduce the frequency of commuting, it allows workers to accept longer commute distances, implying that telecommuters have a different valuation of travel distance than regular commuters and would also favour more peripheral residential locations. The question can be raised, however, whether telecommuters can be regarded as a homogeneous group with respect to their valuation of commute distance and residential preferences. To investigate the heterogeneity of commuters’ and telecommuters’ preferences, latent class discrete choice models of workers’ intended relocation probability and preferred residential environment were estimated. The results suggest that telecommuting is not a factor that can be used to identify segments with different residential preferences. However, within the group of telecommuters, two different classes can be identified, which can be characterised as being sensitive and insensitive to commute distance.

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 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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

Travel decision making is increasingly regarded as a highly complex process in which individuals not only decide about frequency of trips, travel modes, and routes, but also about activity participation and sequencing and timing and duration of activities and trips. This raises the question of whether or not traditional discrete-choice models still provide the best starting point for realistically modeling such a process. Some scholars consider computational process models (CPMs) a promising approach because they allow for heuristic search and suboptimal reasoning processes, which are typical for complex decision making. A model of activity scheduling, SMASH (Simulation Model of Activity Scheduling Heuristics), which incorporates aspects of discrete-choice modeling and CPMs, has been proposed. The model describes the pretrip planning phase, in which individuals decide which activities to perform, at what locations, at what times, in which sequence, and how to travel to the various activity sites. The calibration of this model, using data collected with the interactive computerized procedure MAGIC, has been described in the literature. The results indicated that when scheduling their activities, subjects seem to trade off attributes of activities (time constraints, duration), attributes of the schedule (time spent on activities, overall travel time, realism) and characteristics of the scheduling process (amount of effort already involved in the scheduling process) to obtain feasible schedules. More extensive tests, using simulation experiments, of the model's internal, predictive, and face validity are described. SMASH was used to predict subjects' activity schedules based on their activity agenda and information about their spatio-temporal circumstances. The predicted schedules were then compared with the activity schedules conceived by the subjects themselves under different circumstances, to assess the model's validity. The tests indicated that the model provided satisfactory results with respect to the reproduction of the observed activity schedules. The results of the validity test warrant the use of the model for assessing the effects of various policy measures such as time policies, land use policies, and travel demand management.