Tracking household routines using scheduling hypothesis embedded in skeletons

Abstract

This study addresses complex daily activity-travel routines of households with young children and their proper representation in a computational process model of travel demand using family skeletons expressed as family sequence patterns. Building on qualitative interview research findings, an a priori classification of family types is defined according to the distribution of care and work responsibilities in the household on a typical weekday. Enriched census data are examined to calculate the share of each family type in the region of Flanders in Belgium. Next, individual activity-travel sequence patterns are drawn for children and adults. Finally, these individual sequences are combined to family sequence patterns, yielding a concise representation of skeletal information in activity-travel patterns of household members and their interrelationships. This process is tested and the method offers a promising approach to both household activity-travel analysis and travel demand modelling. This study addresses complex daily activity-travel routines of households with young children and their proper representation in a computational process model of travel demand using family skeletons expressed as family sequence patterns. Building on qualitative interview research findings, an a priori classification of family types is defined according to the distribution of care and work responsibilities in the household on a typical weekday. Enriched census data are examined to calculate the share of each family type in the region of Flanders in Belgium. Next, individual activity-travel sequence patterns are drawn for children and adults. Finally, these individual sequences are combined to family sequence patterns, yielding a concise representation of skeletal information in activity-travel patterns of household members and their interrelationships. This process is tested and the method offers a promising approach to both household activity-travel analysis and travel demand modelling.