Use of repeated cross-sectional travel surveys to develop a Meta model of activity-travel generation process models: accounting for changing preference in time expenditure choices

Abstract

The paper presents an investigation of the temporal transferability of activity generation process models. Three repeated cross-sectional household travel survey data sets collected in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area in the years 2001, 2006, and 2011 are used for the investigation. A multiple discrete-continuous extreme value model is used to develop an activity-travel generation model and separate models are estimated for non-workers and workers. Models are developed for individual years and then for the pooled data set of three cross-sectional years to develop a Meta model of activity generation processes. Individual year-specific models are used to increase knowledge about the temporal stability of different parameters of the model so that the Meta model could capture the non-linear evolution of some key parameters of the model. Different transferability indices are used to test temporal transferability of cross-sectional year-specific modes and the Meta model. The results show that, in general, the activity-travel generation process model shows good temporal transferability. The Meta models reveal that the use of multiple repeated cross-sectional data sets considered as a pseudo-panel data improves temporal transferability of an activity generation model significantly.