Interpersonal Commitments and the Travel/Activity Scheduling Process

This paper analyzes the influence of commitments to other people on an individual’s activity scheduling process. The data are from the CHASE survey, a computerized activity scheduling survey conducted on 270 households in the Greater Toronto Area. Comparisons between the attributes of activities done alone and those done with other people are made. Relationships between interpersonal commitments to children, household adults, and non-household adults and the planning horizon and rescheduling characteristics of activities are analyzed. The analysis in this paper shows that it is too simplistic to assume that the “skeleton schedule” consists of “mandatory” activities, such as work and school, only.