Generation of Mandatory Activities and Formation of Mandatory Tours: Application to the Activity-Based Model for Phoenix, AZ

Most activity based models (ABMs) in practice generate tours first and then predict details of intermediate stops. However, the basic unit of travel analysis in ABM system is an activity. This central idea is somewhat lost in many ABM designs in both research and practice. This paper outlines an approach to model daily travel in ABMs by generating activities first and then forming tours. This approach is based on the idea that higher priority activities are scheduled first and other activities are built around these prioritized activities. There are four steps to this approach – formation of mandatory tour skeletons, participation in shared non-mandatory activities, allocation of individual non-mandatory activities to day segments, and lastly activity sequencing and tour formation. This paper focuses on the first step. Traditionally, a person with a mandatory daily activity pattern was assumed to have a single commuting tour to the usual workplace. However, in reality a significant number of workers pursue multiple work-related activities, including non-workplace (business) activities. Some previously developed ABMs tackled this issue by incorporating a mandatory tour frequency model. This approach distinguishes business activities from the regular workplace activities. First the frequency and chronological ordering of workplace/business activities is modeled, and then the location of business activities, and finally the tour breakdown decision. These models make the ABM system behaviorally more realistic and more useful in practice since they address certain travel markets like “midday business circulation” in urban business districts that are largely missing in most travel models.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB40 Transportation Demand Forecasting.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Board

    500 Fifth Street, NW
    Washington, DC  United States  20001
  • Authors:
    • Paul, Binny M
    • Vovsha, Peter
    • Hicks, James E
    • Vyas, Gaurav
    • Livshits, Vladimir
    • Jeon, Kyunghwi
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2015

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 20p
  • Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01558293
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 15-5149
  • Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Mar 30 2015 12:22PM