Socio-demographics, activity participation and travel behavior

This paper describes the development, estimation and interpretation of a mo del relating socio-demographics, activity participation (time use) and trav el behavior. A complex set of interrelationships among the variables of int erest is estimated simultaneously using the structural equation modeling me thodology, with activity participation (time allocated to a number of activ ity types) and travel behavior endogenous to the model. The research report ed here shows that complex relationships among socio-demographics, activity participation and travel behavior exist and can be captured by the structu ral equation model structure. Specifically, the results show that we can ex plain travel behavior better by including activity participation endogenous ly in the model, than through socio-demographics alone. Furthermore, the re sults reported here reveal the relationships between in-home and out-of-hom e activity participation and travel behavior. Lastly, the research shows th at by examining the direct, indirect and total effects in the model system, we are able to better capture and understand the relationships among socio -demographics, activity participation and travel behavior. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.