Travel Behavior of University Students on Rainy Days: A Preliminary Study on International Comparison between East Asian Countries

Abstract

Weather has an influence on our everyday life, travel and out-of-home activity participation. Especially many cities in East Asian countries including Japan have much rain. This paper focuses on travel behavior of university students on rainy days and attitude towards rain. We conducted a questionnaire survey for university students and staffs in a total of ten cities from eight East Asian countries and made an international comparison of their behavior and attitude. The number of sample is not so large but we got some interesting results. Although main travel mode is very different between cities, it did not show much variation for each city between fine days and rainy days except for bicycle in Tokyo. Trip frequency on rainy days was less than that of fine days depending on trip purpose. There was significant difference in activity schedule in the morning between fine days and rainy days. Lastly difference in attitude towards rain among countries was discussed.