Analysing the rhythms of travel using survival analysis

Abstract

Temporal aspects of individual travel behaviour have been the foci of analysis in the activity-based approach since its emergence 30 years ago. Among the other aspects, rhythmic patterns of travel behaviour have been neglected, though – mainly due to missing or insufficient data capturing periodicity on a weekly or monthly basis. The German research project Mobidrive, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, implemented a six-week continuous travel diary which now yields a unique data base for detecting and analysing rhythms of time-use and mobility. This paper reports first results describing and explaining those rhythmic patterns of travel behaviour by applying the techniques and models of survival analysis.