Center for Activity Systems Analysis

Activity-based approaches are perhaps the most promising alternative to the current travel forecasting methodology. This paper presents a pattern generation model that can serve as a link between activity and trip-based methodologies. The model uses a clustering approach to identify groups of similar activity-travel behavior and relates them to household socioeconomic attributes. Minimally, the pattern generation model is offered as a possible replacement to the standard trip generation models. Moreover, it can serve as the core component of a proposed activity-based microsimulation model that constructs complete origin-destination tables using a wholly activity-based approach. The technique proposed clearly recognizes the complex nature of activity-travel behavior in terms of spatial and temporal constraints, household interactions and the derived nature of such behavior. An application of the model is outlined using data from the 1994 Portland activity-travel survey.