Modeling Intra-Household Interactions for the Use of Battery Electric Vehicles

This study assesses the potential use of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) in place of conventional Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEVs) at household level. The assumption is that BEVs would be adopted as a secondary household vehicle and household members would operate the vehicle through intra-household interactions to overcome the limitations of BEVs such as limited range and long charging times and to utilize its cheaper operating cost. Two scenarios are applied on sample households from California Statewide Travel Survey since there is no data about how travelers would adapt their travel behavior by operating BEVs. In the first scenario, the reported pattern sequences are held but the BEV can be charged for obtaining sufficient range covering capability. In the second scenario, activity participation sequences, intra-household interactions of vehicle and activity allocations among household member are allowed to be changed on account of decreasing household travel disutility. These changes in their travel behavior are simulated by Household Activity Pattern Problem – Charging (HAPPC) model which is a variant of the well-known Household Activity Pattern Problem (HAPP). A sequential activity allocation and insertion heuristic is developed for implementing on HAPPC. The results show that if BEVs would be used at household level the travel disutility of households can be decreased about $30 per day in average.