Data organization and the design of measures for exploration and analysis of household activity/travel behaviour

The activity approach to the study of travel behaviour emerged during the late 1970s in response to behavioural inadequacies of the trip-based paradigm, characteristic of that time period. Following decades of research, there is now broad understanding with respect to determinants of individual level activity/travel outcomes. There is also general recognition that the activities of individuals are closely tied to those of additional household members. From a behavioural perspective, the research described in this dissertation has been conducted to explore the manner in which the activity/travel choices of individuals can be expressed at the household level. An improved understanding of household activity/travel behaviour can be used to inform policy designed to facilitate travel reduction by targeting households that engage in above average daily travel.; Activity/travel research themes, emerging methods, and modeling approaches are identified early on in the dissertation. Recognition of object-orientation as a meaningful approach for conceptual modeling and application development partially stimulated design and implementation of an object-relational spatial database for activity/travel research. The database provides an information foundation for exploring household level activity/travel behaviour, using innovative activity/travel pattern measures, implemented within a GIS-based Activity Analysis toolkit. The activity/travel response of households to a regional polycentric urban form travel reduction strategy is then investigated using several of the activity/travel pattern measures. The activity perspective, household approach, and location variable specifications characterize the contributions of this research to literature in which similar questions have been addressed.