Outcomes of Travel-Based Multitasking: Reported Benefits and Disadvantages of Conducting Activities While Commuting

Travel-based multitasking, or the act of conducting activities while traveling, is more feasible than ever before, as increasing vehicle automation and the expanding availability of shared ride services coincides with the ubiquity of portable information and communication technology devices. However, the question of how and whether these increasingly blurred time envelopes are truly helping rather than hurting us is not presently well-understood. Using the results from an attitudinally-rich travel survey of Northern California commuters (N=2331), the authors develop a conceptual and empirically-based framework for studying benefits and disadvantages of travel-based multitasking. The framework identifies hedonic and productive benefits, and affective and cognitive disadvantages, of travel-based multitasking. The authors then present two bivariate probit models that examine the effects of socioeconomic characteristics, attitudes, personality traits, and activities conducted or items carried while traveling, on those benefits and disadvantages, respectively. Notably, the authors find evidence that mode conditions and activities that may facilitate multitasking benefits, can also simultaneously yield disadvantages, a finding that resonates within the general multitasking literature, and that empirically corroborates the suggestion that travel-based multitasking may not uniformly increase trip utility.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB20 Standing Committee on Effects of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on Travel Choices.
• Authors:
  • Shaw, F Atiyya
  • Malokin, Aliaksandr
  • Mokhtarian, Patricia L
  • Circella, Giovanni
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 8p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Commuting; Intelligent vehicles; Multitasking; Ridesharing; Socioeconomic factors
• Geographic Terms: Northern California
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01661311
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-05107
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 26 2018 1:47PM