Empirical insights into the frequency and nature of multitasking on Dutch trains

This paper describes a study of the frequency and nature of multitasking on Dutch trains. Based on field observations on intercity and regional trains descriptive and model analyses were carried out. It appears that the most occurring task was ‘doing nothing’, followed by ‘Talking socially’ and ‘Reading a newspaper’. On average, most time is spent as ‘Study’, followed by ‘Reading a book’, and ‘Puzzles’. A multinomial logistic regression model that describes the relationship between the probability of conducting a particular task and several personal and travel context variables is estimated. Most import variables that influence the probability of the distinguished tasks are presence of accompanying persons, age of the traveler, travel day, type of train, crowdedness on the train, and time of day.