A comprehensive utility-based system of activity-travel scheduling options modelling (CUSTOM) for worker's daily activity scheduling processes

ABSTRACT This paper presents a comprehensive utility-based system of activity-travel scheduling options modelling (CUSTOM) and applies it to simulate workers’ daily activity-travel demand. CUSTOM uses a random utility maximizing econometric approach for jointly modelling activity-type choices, time expenditure choices and location choices. It considers the depleting time budgets as activity-travel scheduling progresses along with shrinking potential path areas (PPAs) for activity location choices. For prototype application, the model is estimated on a sample of workers and students taken from the 2011 household travel survey of the National Capital Region (NCR) of Canada. A validation exercise is performed and it is demonstrated that CUSTOM can accurately predict activity-travel behaviour. Differential travel time sensitivity is identified and it is revealed that people are more sensitive to auto travel time than transit or non-motorized travel times. Changes in choice randomness, time expenditure choices and activity-type choice with time-of-day are captured in the model. Seamless integration of discrete activity-type and location choices with continuous time expenditure choice in the context of shrinking time budget and resulting narrowing activity space enables CUSTOM to capture complex behavioural dynamics in activity-travel scheduling.