The household activity pattern problem of analyzing/predicting the optimal path of household members through time and space as they complete a prescribed agenda of out-of-home activities is posed as a variant of the pickup and delivery problem with time windows. The most general case of the model includes provision for vehicle transfer, selective activity participation and ridesharing options. A series of examples are solved using generic algorithms. The model is purported to remove existing barriers to the operationalization of activity-based approaches in travel behavior analysis.

This report documents work performed on PATH TO 5323. Due to an administrative mandate, the work performed and reported herein constitutes only the early stages of the multi-year project that was approved under PATH TO 5323, and subsequently divided into two distinct awards—TO 5323 and TO 6323. Moreover, a series of events during the early stages of the project substantially redirected the original effort. These factors led to a major redirection from the original project. The majority of the work performed under the revised TO 5323 was then to develop a methodology consistent with the new direction of the project, which is detailed in this report.

Under the revised direction, the objective of the project is to develop and implement a real-time adaptive control system for corridor management. The proposed control strategy is based on a mathematical representation that describes the behavior of the real-life processes (traffic flow in corridor networks and actuated controller operation). In formulating the optimal control problem, we have restricted our attention to control of only those parameters commonly found in modern actuated controllers (e.g., Type 170 and 2070 controllers). By doing this, we hope to ensure that the procedures developed herein can be implemented with minimal adaptation of existing field devices and the software that controls their operation.

The focus of this paper is on the demonstration that some rather well-known network-based formulations in operations research that have heretofore largely gone unnoticed in activity-based travel research offer a potentially powerful technique for advancing the general development of the activity-based modeling approach. These formulations can provide an analytical framework that unifies the complex interactions among the resource allocation decisions made by households in conducting their daily affairs outside the home while preserving the utility-maximizing principles presumed to guide such decisions. A mathematical programming formulation is developed and used to identify the similarities and differences between traditional trip-based modeling methodologies and those pertaining to an activity-based approach. It is demonstrated that the two approaches are directly related.

The San Pedro Bay Ports (SPBP) of Los Angeles and Long Beach in Southern California are one of the major container port complexes in the world: in 2004, for example, the SPBP processed over 36% of the U.S. container trade. However, the SPBP complex is also a major source of air pollution caused largely, on the land-side, by diesel locomotives and trucks that transport containers to and from the ports. The resulting annual health costs may exceed $2.5 billion. Low income and minority communities along the major Alameda corridor, a 20-mile railroad line that connects the SPBP to the transcontinental rail network east of downtown Los Angeles, are particular affected. This study will create a tool that will quantify links between SPBP freight traffic, air pollution, and the health of local communities. This tool will help evaluate the effectiveness of various alternatives (such as congestion pricing to decrease peak container traffic flows, biofuels for trucks and locomotives, or intermodal and route shifting of container traffic) in order to mitigate the environmental and health impacts of SPBP activities. Expected results include new insights into the spatial, socioeconomic, public health, and social justice consequences of alternative SPBP multimodal freight operations strategies.