Weekly Rhythm in Joint Time Expenditure for All At-Home and Out-of-Home Activities

This paper uses the Kuhn-Tucker demand system modeling technique to investigate the capacity of a typical week in capturing rhythms in activity-travel behavior. It considers all possible activity types within a weeklong modeling time frame. Complex interactions in time expenditure between at-home and out-of-home activities and among different out-of-home activities are captured by introducing behavioral elements in the model in terms of baseline preference, time translation, and satiation effects. The Kuhn-Tucker demand system model used in this paper is a random utility maximization model with the inherent assumption that every individual maximizes total utility in allocating time to the activities under consideration within the modeling time frame. Models are developed for each individual week of a 6-week travel diary drawn from the MobiDrive data set for Karlsruhe and Halle, Germany. Each model contains 83 variables and reveals behavioral details of complex activity-travel behavior. Based on the performances of the models in terms of fitting observed data and parameter values of specific variables, it is clear that a modeling time frame for a typical week is capable of capturing the rhythms of activity-travel behavior sufficiently. The paper concludes with the recommendation that the availability of activity diary data for a multiweek time period would further enhance understanding on this issue.