A substantial portion of regional travel is implemented by household members who travel together, primarily to participate in a shared household activity. Joint household travel is not explicitly accounted for in most regional travel models in which the unit of travel (either trip or tour) is considered for each person separately at each modeling stage--generation, mode, destination, and time-of-day choice. In addition, statistical evidence demonstrates that the vast majority of shared-ride travel consists of joint household travel. A modeling approach that distinguishes shared activity-based joint household travel from arranged interhousehold carpooling is clearly desirable to support accurate forecasts of shared-ride travel, critical in the evaluation of high-occupancy vehicle lanes or the adoption of toll strategies differentiated by occupancy levels. A range of aspects of joint travel both with empirical evidence and with discussion of modeling issues are addressed. A set of joint travel models is presented that has been estimated with the mid-Ohio regional travel household-interview survey. The model reported is one of the innovative components of the tour-based travel demand modeling system that has been developed for the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.
Abstract