Variability of daily car usage and the frequency of long-distance driving

Abstract

The limited electric range of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) requires an understanding of the variation in day-to-day driving and the frequency of long-distance driving. Existing literature suggests high regularity of human mobility. However, large longitudinal mobility samples for empirical tests are hardly available. Here, we analyze the regularity of daily vehicle kilometers travelled (VKT) of 10,000 vehicles observed between two months and several years and quantify the regularity of daily VKT and the frequency of long-distance driving. Our results indicate limited regularity of daily VKT beyond one day of time lag (mean autocorrelation ≤ 0.11). Long-distance driving with daily km over 100 km (200 km) typically take place on less than 20% (5% for 200 km) of driving days but make up 40% (18%) of annual VKT. Our results have implications for sustainable transport research and the design of travel surveys.