Travel Behavior

An Assessment of the Viva CalleSJ Event in San Jose [Research Brief]

Kos, Richard M.
Adam Cohen
2024

The assessment of Viva CalleSJ 2024 employed a mixed-method approach, collecting data through surveys of participants, interviews with businesses, and observational analysis during the event. An intercept survey was distributed along the six-mile route to capture participants’ demographics, reasons for attending, travel modes, physical activity, spending patterns, and perceptions of the event. The survey, available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, yielded insights into participant demographics and engagement. Semi-structured interviews with business owners and city officials explored...

Travel Behavior: Shared Mobility and Transportation Equity

Susan Shaheen
Bell, Corwin
Adam Cohen
Yelchuru, Balaji
2017

Shared mobility—the shared use of a motor vehicle, bicycle, or other low-speed transportation mode that allows users to obtain short-term access to transportation on an as-needed basis—has the potential to help address some transportation equity challenges. In an effort to categorize the myriad of transportation equity barriers facing transportation system users, this primer proposes a ‘STEPS to Transportation Equity’ framework including: Spatial, Temporal, Economic, Physiological, and Social barriers. For each barrier category, shared mobility opportunities and challenges are explored...

Activity-Based Human Mobility Patterns Inferred from Mobile Phone Data: A Case Study of Singapore

Jiang, Shan
Ferreira, Joseph
Marta Gonzalez
2017

In this study, with Singapore as an example, we demonstrate how we can use mobile phone call detail record (CDR) data, which contains millions of anonymous users, to extract individual mobility networks comparable to the activity-based approach. Such an approach is widely used in the transportation planning practice to develop urban micro simulations of individual daily activities and travel; yet it depends highly on detailed travel survey data to capture individual activity-based behavior. We provide an innovative data mining framework that synthesizes the state-of-the-art techniques in...

Using Large Scale GPS Data to Reveal EV Driver Activity Patterns Beyond Charging Sessions

Clark, Callie
Driscoll, Anne
Ren, Xiyuan
Salah, Salsabil
Marta Gonzalez
Chow, Joseph Y. J.
Yabe, Takahiro
2026

Accurate insights into electric vehicle (EV) driver behavior are essential for long-term infrastructure planning, grid management, and understanding downstream economic impacts, yet individual level data on EV mobility remains limited. Here, we develop a scalable framework to infer EV ownership and charging behavior from passively collected, high-resolution mobility traces covering over 760,000 drivers across four major U.S. metropolitan areas. We identify likely EV drivers based on distinctive visitation patterns to charging stations and gas stations, frequency of visits, and daily travel...

Compulsory Convenience? How Large Arterials and Land Use Affect Midblock Crossing in Fushun, China

Wendy Tao
Shomik Mehndiratta
Elizabeth Deakin
2010

Abstract: This study focuses on how street design and land uses influence pedestrian behavior in a medium-sized Chinese city, Fushun. In cities throughout China, the change from workplace-managed and assigned housing to market housing has had profound effects on pedestrians. Coupled with motorization, pedestrian trips are increasingly external, pushed out of the protected space of the gated block and onto massive arterials that now carry automobiles, trucks, and buses in growing numbers. Long blocks, unenforced zebra crossings, and inadequate green time at traffic signals do not equitably...

Travel Choices and Customer Responses to Changing Service Levels: Findings from the San Francisco Bay Area

James Charles Rubin
Elizabeth Deakin
2012

This paper presents findings from a survey and focus groups designed to assess mode choices, attitudes toward transit and other modes, and willingness to pay for reliable services. The survey examined why travelers to downtown Oakland, CA, a transit-rich location, chose to use transit or not. The focus groups examined responses to changes in tolls and carpool rules and likely responses should the Bay Area Rapid Transit system's reliability decline due to funding shortfalls. The factors that most significantly affected mode choice were whether the traveler had a free parking space and...

Building more parking at major employment centers: Can full-cost recovery parking charges fund TDM programs?

Aldo Tudela Rivadeneyra
Manish Shirgaokar
Elizabeth Deakin
William Riggs
2017

In dense urban areas, surface parking often poses an opportunity cost, and reuse of the land for urban development with parking relocated to a multi-story structure may be an attractive option. This paper analyzes the cost of replacing surface parking with a parking structure and finds that it may be equally cost effective to pursue travel demand management strategies. The paper analyzes what it costs to build a parking space in a multi-story structure (garage) using US average data as well as data from the case of a typical large US employer, the University of California, Berkeley. The...

An integrated assessment of factors affecting modal choice: towards a better understanding of the causal effects of built environment

Samira Ramezani
Barbara Pizzo
Elizabeth Deakin
2018

This paper discusses the methodological challenges in understanding causal relationships between urban form and travel behavior and uses a holistic quasi-experimental approach to investigate the separable marginal influence of each of several urban form factors on mode choice as well as the complex relationships between those factors and a wide range of personal traits. Data analysis and models are used to reveal the effect of such interactions on mode choice for both work and non-work trips in Rome, Italy. It is found that population density does not have a significant marginal positive...

Built Environment versus Personal Traits: an Application of Integrated Choice and Latent Variable Model (ICLV) in Understanding Modal Choice in Rome, Italy

Samira Ramezani
Barbara Pizzo
Elizabeth Deakin
2015

In spite of numerous applications of Integrated Choice and Latent Variable (ICLV) modelling in the field of transportation engineering, there is no published work applying it in studies of the effect of built environment on modal choice. This study uses an ICLV model to investigate the relative importance of built environment versus personal traits. It designs a quasiexperiment to elicit a better understanding of the causal effects of several urban form characteristics on modal choice. Findings suggest that built form can compete with the magnitude of the influence of personal traits, if...

Analyzing the Equity Impacts of Transit Fare Changes: A Case Study of AC Transit

Cornelius Nuworsoo
Elizabeth Deakin
2006

Many transit agencies, faced with budget shortfalls, must consider increasing fares. In this paper we analyze the case of the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit). In March 2005, AC Transit put forth five alternative fare proposals for public discussion. The proposed fare structures included combinations of fare hikes, base fare reductions, eliminations of free transfers, and discontinuation of periodic passes. Using data from the agency’s 2002 on-board survey, we assessed the impacts of the various fare proposals on different subsets of riders and evaluated the equity of...