An Investigation of Intra-Household Interactions in Travel Mode Choice

Abstract

AN INVESTIGATION OF INTRA-HOUSEHOLD INTERACTIONS IN TRAVEL MODE CHOICE This thesis develops a modelling framework to integrate intra-household interactions with tour-based mode choice. The findings provide evidence of intra-household interactions in travel mode choice of each household member and highlight factors associated with joint household activities and shared ride arrangements, with a distinction between weekdays and weekends. The results indicate that household resources, mobility and social constraints, and opportunities to coordinate household members’ activities play an important role in arranging joint household travel. Also, modelling outputs signal the differences that interpersonal interactions make to model elasticities and the implications for transport policy. The originality and the contribution of this research lie in four main areas. First, it tests the relevance of interactions between household members to household mode choice decisions and adds an additional ‘layer of interactions’ to the activity-based modelling framework. The study offers an analysis of household travel decisions embedding context and situation effects, thereby reflecting more realistically the nature of travel decisions. Second, this study offers a typology of joint household tour patterns embedded in a modelling approach which permits a variety of activity-travel patterns amongst all household members together with intra-household interactions. Third, the research provides evidence on the effects of land use factors measured at the micro-level so as to identify which aspects of the built environment are most likely to support policy change for sustainable transport choices. Finally, by separating weekend activity-travel from their weekday counterparts, this study is able to quantify empirically differences which suggest different transport management measures aimed to alleviate traffic congestion and promote public transport use.