Modeling household activity travel behavior: Examples of state of the art modeling approaches and research agenda

Even though the importance of representing group decision-making mechanisms of household behavior has been recognized since the 1980s in the context of the activity-based approach, studies about group behavior in transportation are relatively new and consequently limited, compared with the research about individual decisions. In line with the special issue "Modeling Intra-Household Interactions and Group Decision-Making" published in the Journal of Transportation in 2005, and motivated by the recent progress of group behavior research in transportation, this special issue presents examples of state-of-the-art modeling approaches to household activity travel decisions. We hope it will stimulate more intensive discussion about future research directions from both methodological and practical perspectives. Five papers are selected to cover diverse methodologies, including group decision theory, utility theory, latent class modeling, rule-based modeling, and micro-simulation approaches. The topics cover household task and time allocation, car ownership, vehicle transaction, mode choice, activity generation, and activity scheduling behavior. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.