Assessment of the impacts of transportation policies on complex travel behaviour necessarily involves consideration of constraints, absent in conventional techniques, yet fundamental to the activity approach. Policies may be generally viewed as those which either relax or tighten constraints, or alternatively, those which expand or reduce the choice set of individual decision-makers. Whereas existing research has focused on the analysis of relevant constraints in activity/travel behaviour, few extensions have been made to examine choice as central to policy assessment, due to both the strength of accepted relationships between constraints and feasible activity patterns, and limited results relative to choice set formation. The starchild model system (Recker et al) generates feasible activity patterns utilising a constrained, combinatoric scheduling algorithm. This pattern set is subsequently subject to alternate techniques of choice set formation, resulting in a calibrated choice model. The impact of a range of policies (e.g., budget restrictions and activity availability, both temporally and spatially) is estimated within the model structure by examining the resultant changes in individual choice sets. The impacts of the introduction and utilisation of new modes of travel (e.g. electric vehicles) could also be estimated. A brief summary of pertinent research related to the model's development and a brief examination of the data base utilised in the policy application precedes a comprehensive treatment of model estimation results and the ensuing evaluation for a range of policy scenarios.(a) for the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 290118.
Abstract