Model for Allocation of Maintenance Activities to Household Members

Abstract

Household maintenance activities and associated tours, even if individually implemented, should be thought of as satisfying the needs of the entire household rather than simply the needs of the person who implements the activity. These activities are characterized by a high degree of substitution between household members who could implement them. This characteristic suggests a modeling structure in which maintenance activities are generated by the entire household and then allocated to the household members for implementation. In this approach, the modeling of allocated activities is executed by a sequence of two linked discrete choice models. The first model relates to the entire household and returns total daily frequency of individual maintenance tours by purpose. The second model relates to the tour level and returns the allocation of each generated tour to a particular household member. Within the general framework of a regional demand modeling system, these models are applied after, and are conditional on, the mandatory and joint tour generation stage. The statistical analysis and model estimation for this implementation of allocated household maintenance activities allow for important insights into the intrahousehold decision-making mechanism and improved travel demand forecasts. Models of this type have been implemented as components of the regional travel demand modeling system recently developed for the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.