Is There Anything Exceptional about ICT Use While Travelling? A Time Allocation Framework for and Empirical Insights into Multitasking Patterns and Well-Being Implications from the Canadian General Social Survey

Being involved in multiple tasks at the same time, usually termed multitasking, is a common presence in most people's lives as reported in various time use and travel behaviour studies. In recent years some researchers have explored the role of information and communication technology (ICT) devices in enabling a greater range of activities while travelling, whereas others reported links between ICT and increased time stress. In this paper, the authors investigate the extent to which ICT use during travel differs from uses during other activities, and how such patterns are linked to indicators of well-being. The authors present an extended microeconomic time allocation framework with a tensor-based time constraint which can be used to explain the propensity of certain activities to occur jointly. The authors operationalise our framework using a general linear model and the Canadian General Social Survey 2010 53 (n=13,313), also linking time allocation patterns to indicators of time crunch. The analysis indicates that secondary ICT activities constitute a comparatively low fraction of the time allocated to primary activities (although this is likely subject to underreporting). A number of socioeconomic attributes, such as age, education, and relationship status, are associated with the propensity to engage in ICT-based multitasking. The pattern of individual attributes associated with participation in secondary ICT activities is found to be reasonably consistent across primary activities, including travel. Finally, the authors note that ICT use as a secondary activity can be an indicator of time crunch, but the actual relationship depends on individuals' characteristics and the context of multitasking.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB20 Standing Committee on Effects of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on Travel Choices. Alternate title: Is There Anything Exceptional about ICT Use While Traveling? Time Allocation Framework for and Empirical Insights into Multitasking Patterns and Well-Being Implications from Canadian General Social Survey.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Pawlak, Jacek
  • Circella, Giovanni
  • Polak, John
  • Mokhtarian, Patricia
  • Sivakumar, Aruna
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
• Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 22p
• Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Econometric models; Mobile applications; Multitasking; Telecommunications; Time; Travel behavior
• Geographic Terms: Canada
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01594330
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 16-5642
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 21 2016 4:47PM