Combining person based GPS tracking and prompted recall interviews for a comprehensive investigation of travel behaviour adaptation processes during life course transitions

In order to comprehensively understand behavioral changes occurring during life course transitions, surveys must be conducted over relatively long periods of time. Indeed, changes in behavior and in attitudes do not take place instantly, at the time of the transition (the day of the residential move, the day when starting a new job, the birth of a child, etc.). Rather, people go through complex adaptation processes which can involve phases of preparation, of experimentation and of consolidation of new practices. At the same time, surveying people going through notable life course transitions sets very high demands with respect to minimizing respondent burden. Typically, individuals will not be ready to dedicate much time for surveys during these life phases as they are already rather busy with adapting their conduct of life to their new situation. This paper will present an innovative survey design combining global positioning system (GPS)-based person tracking and qualitative interviews. In practice, the paper will hand out GPS tracking units to respondents, collect extensive data about their travel behavior and subsequently use this data as an input for qualitative, prompted recall interviews. Survey participants will be asked to comment on their travel behavior, the location choices underlying their activity space and their new mobility experiences, both during the observation period and at the end of the observation period. The GPS observation period will encompass 6 weeks, beginning shortly after the studied life course transition. The main goal of this research is to develop a more rigorous understanding of individual travel behavior and more specifically of the formation of travel habits, by way of the analysis of the processes underlying behavioral changes during life course transitions.