Modeling the Impact of Communications Technologies on Travel Behavior and Land Use

Abstract

The widespread use of communications technologies has changed the way people travel. Transport modeling offers the opportunity to analyze this impact and test innovations, policies, and future trends before they actually happen. The impact of smartphones, GPS, and telework has been researched insufficiently, despite the impact of these technologies on travel behavior. Autonomous vehicles are expected to be widely available in the near future, but their impact on travel behavior is largely unknown. Last but not least, social networks have a dominating impact on the activities people pursue, the destinations they choose, the mode they use, and with whom they travel. This paper describes a framework for an integrated land use–transport model for analyzing the impact of communications technologies on travel behavior. Social networks are simulated explicitly. The impact of communications technologies on both land use, such as the impact on a housing search, auto ownership, or work place choice, as well as travel behavior such as activity generation, destination choice, or mode choice, can be simulated with this modeling suite.