Missing Typical Weekdays in Travel Surveys: A Pseudo-Panel Approach to Explore Weekly Travel Patterns

Abstract

Travel surveys generally rely on single-day travel diaries where respondents report their travel information for a typical weekday. However, the concept of a typical weekday does not represent the current reality, as travel behavior has been largely altered in the post-pandemic period. Besides, the conclusions based on analyzing single-day travel diaries lack the ability to capture daily variations in travel behavior. In response to these concerns, this research proposed a framework to expand single-day travel diaries into longitudinal multi-day travel data using a pseudo-panel approach. Leveraging the constructed longitudinal data, the study evaluated the determinants of people’s daily participation in work–school, routine, and discretionary activities. Fixed and random effects panel data estimation models were used for this purpose. Results showed that activity participation is largely attributed to vehicle ownership, income, education, driving license, and household structure. Noticeable daily trends were observed in work–school and discretionary activities. A negative association between transit pass ownership and activity participation was noticed, suggesting social exclusion faced by transit users. In addition, teleworkers were found to be relatively more engaged in discretionary activities. Suburban residents were found to travel longer to participate in activities compared to urban dwellers. The proposed research framework can support future activity-based modeling aspects, such as activity participation, scheduling, mode choice, shared travel, and destination choice models, specifically addressing the “typical weekday” barrier.