Activity-travel planning and rescheduling behavior: an empirical analysis of influencing factors

Abstract

An increasing interest in dynamic activity scheduling could be witnessed in travel behavior research over the past years. The research presented in this paper analyzes the factors influencing the actual activity scheduling process, using detailed activity-travel data from an extensive dataset that was collected in Flanders (Belgium). A first model examines the attributes that influence activity planning: a second model analyzes the factors that affect activity rescheduling. The explanatory variables considered in both models are individual, household, activity and schedule attributes and their impact is analyzed using mixed logit models. Random effects are added to the models to test for within-individual variance. The results reveal that activity and schedule characteristics considerably affect activity planning. The rescheduling model also has several highly significant activity and schedule attributes. Most individual and household attributes considered in this paper do not influence activity planning and rescheduling behavior, although strong statistical evidence indicates that individual-specific preferences or dislikes for planning and rescheduling determine the process of activity scheduling.