Using a stereo panoramic interactive navigation system to measure pedestrian activity scheduling behaviour: a test of validity

Stereo panoramic virtual reality (VR) may represent another new technology with which to collect travel diaries. The potential value of VR-based systems is that respondents may reexperience and reenact their behaviour. The actual experience and visual trigger may lead to more valid data. To test this hypothesis the validity of a paper-and-pencil diary was compared with a stereo panoramic navigation application against actual observations of activity-travel sequences of pedestrians who were traced by observers. The results of this validation study support the hypothesis for most facets of activity-travel diaries, except for the aspect of duration, which generated more mixed results.