| As an activity-based approach, this study focuses on the methodology of estimating the timing utility of people's daily activities and examines how such utility interacts with travel time.;Different from existing studies on scheduling costs/disutility, this study argues that the utility of time for undertaking a specific activity may vary over the course of day. That is, each activity has its ideal time to be undertaken. The utility of "saved" travel time thus depends on not only the value of travel time, but also "where" the "saved" time slot is "located" and the increasing utility due to rescheduling other activities to make use of this time slot. The estimation of such utility therefore needs a methodology to estimate people's timing choices and timing utility over all major daily activities.;To achieve this goal, event-history analysis (hazard rate model) is used to estimate the revealed preferences of Canadians on their mandatory daily activities. The estimates are applied to a scheduling program to examine how they make up their minds with the optimal objective to maximize their total timing utility. How travel time interacts with the scheduling choices is then examined and a partial equilibrium of morning arrival time at work is established. In this model of equilibrium, commuters are allowed to have staggered working hours, and to make tradeoffs between travel time and total timing utility of all mandatory activities during the day in order to find their best work start time. |
