Examining the impact of weather variability on non-commuters’ daily activity–travel patterns in different regions of Sweden

• Main Authors: Liu, Chengxi, Susilo, Yusak O., Karlström, Anders
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692314001331

By jointly modelling the routine and leisure activity–travel engagements of non-commuters in different regions of Sweden, this paper explores the interactions between time allocation, travel demand and mode choice under different weather conditions. Combined weather and travel survey datasets that span a period of over 13years were analysed. Simultaneous Tobit models were applied to explore the interactions among these activity–travel indicators, whilst municipalities’ unique conditions and heterogeneities between different time-points were taken into account. The model results reveal the trade-offs between routine and leisure activities in terms of activity duration, number of trips and travel time. Positive mutual endogeneity was found between slow-mode share in routine and leisure trips. The results also highlight the trade-offs between routine and leisure activities under abnormal weather conditions. Regional differences between weather effects are substantial due to differences in direct, indirect and total marginal effects. Between-municipality variability constitutes a considerable part of the variability in activity duration and travel time. Between-municipality variability in leisure activity duration and leisure travel time is larger in northern Sweden, while that of routine activity duration and routine travel time is larger in central Sweden, after weather and social demographics have been controlled. Weather variability; Activity–travel patterns; Regional difference; Simultaneous Tobit models; Total marginal effect;