Investigation of weekend travel, social networking and transport-support application usage: A structural equation modeling approach

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of the smartphone-based social networking and transport-support application usage intensity on travel behavior, specifically on vehicle kilometer traveled during weekends. It utilizes data from the ‘Smartphone Use and Travel Choice Survey 2015’, which was exclusively conducted on smartphone users in Halifax, Canada. One of the unique features of the study is that it explores the direct and indirect effects of individuals’ attributes, including socio-demographic, neighborhood and attitudinal attributes, on weekend travel and smartphone application usage intensity. Model results suggest that higher usage intensity of social networking applications and pro-environmental attitude decrease individuals’ probability of higher weekend vehicle kilometer traveled. While lower age group people tend to have higher social networking and transport-support application usage and lower weekend vehicle travel, middle age individuals more likely to have lower social networking application usage and higher weekend vehicle kilometer traveled. Interesting results are observed in relation to the direct and indirect effects. For instance, positive direct effect of land-use index on weekend vehicle kilometer traveled indicates individuals’ tendency to perform higher weekend travel by vehicles while living in higher mixed land-use areas. However, negative indirect effect suggests that individuals living in higher mixed land-use areas may indirectly decrease their probability of higher weekend vehicle kilometer traveled due to lower transport-support application usage intensity and pro-environmental attitude.