Modeling the Commute Activity-Travel Pattern of Workers: Formulation and Empirical Analysis

This paper proposes a methodological framework to analyze the activity and travel pattern of workers during the evening commute. The framework uses a discrete-continuous econometric system to model jointly the decision to participate in an activity during the evening commute and the following attributes of the participation: activity type, activity duration, and travel time deviation to the activity location relative to the direct travel time from work to home. The model parameters are estimated using a sample of workers from the 1991 Boston Household Activity Survey. The paper also presents mathematical expressions to evaluate the effect of changes in sociodemographic variables and policy-relevant exogenous variables on the temporal pattern of trips and cold starts attributable to commute stops. The application of the model indicates that failure to accommodate the joint nature of the activity decisions during the evening commute can lead to misdirected policy actions for traffic congestion alleviation and for mobile-source emissions reduction.