Measuring and modeling activity and travel well-being

[摘要] (cont.) The theoretical analysis consists of the development of a framework and measures for the incorporation of well-being within activity-based models of travel demand. The analysis of travel well-being is done in the context of the commute to work. First, using the web-based cross-sectional survey, we develop a structural equations model to model the causes and correlates of commute satisfaction. Second, we study travel wellbeing in a dynamic context. We postulate that due to the routine nature of commuting, people are unlikely to fully think about their travel happiness unless they need to reconsider their decisions. We conduct experiments in Switzerland and at MIT requiring habitual car drivers to commute temporarily by public transportation and measure their travel happiness and mode choice pre- and post-treatment. We find that the routine (pretreatment) and non-routine (post-treatment) measures of travel happiness are significantly different, as postulated. We then use the data from these experiments to estimate the proposed modeling framework, whereby the car and public transportation happiness measures are used as indicators of utility. We find that the combined choice-happiness model results in more efficient parameter estimates than a choice model alone, thus demonstrating the benefits of the extended framework that includes happiness.

[发布机构] Massachusetts Institute of Technology