Area of Expertise: Travel Behavior, Land Use, & the Built Environment

working paper

Johnny Walks to School - Does Jane? Sex Differences in Children's Active Travel to School

Publication Date

September 1, 2006

Author(s)

Tracey McMillan, Kristen Day, Marlon Boarnet, Mariela Alfonzo

Areas of Expertise

Public Transit, Shared Mobility, & Active Transportation Travel Behavior, Land Use, & the Built Environment
View working paper

Abstract

Communities are traditionally built with one transportation mode and user in mind—the adult automobile driver. Recently, however, there has been an international focus on the trip to school as an opportunity to enhance children’s independent active travel. Several factors must be considered when designing programs to promote walking and bicycling. This paper examined the influence of child sex on caregivers’ decisions about travel mode choice to school.

Caregivers of children in grades three to five from ten California Safe Routes to School communities were surveyed on their child’s normal travel mode to school and factors that determined travel decisions. Results indicate that the odds of walking and bicycling to school are 40 percent lower in girls than boys; however, this relationship is significantly moderated by the caregiver’s own walking behavior. The findings suggest that programs that focus on increasing children’s active travel to school should consider multiple influences on health behavior, including the neighborhood physical activity of parents.

Phd Dissertation

Modeling individual route choice with automated real -time vehicle trip histories

Publication Date

January 1, 2006

Author(s)

Yu Zhang

Areas of Expertise

Intelligent Transportation Systems, Emerging Technologies, & Big Data Travel Behavior, Land Use, & the Built Environment
View Phd Dissertation

Abstract

Collecting rich individual trip data at an individual level has long been viewed as a hard task and has become a bottleneck in modeling and calibrating travel behavior models since traditional survey methods are both costly and time-consuming. New technologies make such data a possibility and thus there is a need for frameworks that model individual behavior in real-time using such data. Such modeling will find use in a variety of real-time network optimization and prediction schemes. This dissertation describes the details of plausible behavioral modeling of this kind, and develops new data structures that are needed both for handling the network combinatorics in the analysis and in the data storage. The work is presented in the context of a new technology we propose called the Persistent Traffic Cookie (PTC) system which uses the short range wireless connection between vehicles and road side controllers to store authenticated, time-stamped node sequences on an onboard database. The dissertation makes the premise that traditional travel behavior models, including those based on disaggregate decision paradigms were developed primarily for application in aggregate level prediction and are thus not very applicable for an individual’s route choice prediction in real-time. A scheme that does not require variation of explanatory variables across the choice sets or variation in the individual’s decisions for calibration may be essential. Thus the dissertation developed models based on observed frequencies of decisions. The research also stresses the importance of path and sub-path notions in route choice decisions and provides appropriate data structures that enable modeling with such notions. Two methods that directly query the collected sequence data using efficient data structures based on the suffix tree and the suffix array schemes and node/edge transition probability model, are proposed to predict individual travels from trip diary database. A day-to-day PTC simulation framework with behavior components is proposed to generate consistent PTC data and implemented in Paramics microscopic traffic simulator. Day-to-day PTC simulations are carried out for two Paramics networks, including the Irvine Triangle network, which is a well-calibrated real world network. Various scenarios are created to test the sensitivities of the proposed prediction methods. The simulation results shows that it seems the prediction methods are robust with regard to the underlying behavior models, traffic conditions and tracking periods.

Suggested Citation
Yu Zhang (2006) Modeling individual route choice with automated real -time vehicle trip histories. Ph.D.. University of California, Irvine. Available at: https://uci.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_IRV_INST/1gpb62p/alma991035092986404701 (Accessed: October 14, 2023).

Phd Dissertation

Modeling Activity Pattern Generation and Execution

Publication Date

June 30, 2001

Associated Project

Author(s)

Anup Kulkarni

Areas of Expertise

Travel Behavior, Land Use, & the Built Environment
View Phd Dissertation

Abstract

Activity-based approaches are perhaps the most promising alternative to the current travel forecasting methodology. This dissertation first presents a pattern generation model that can serve as a link between activity and trip-based methodologies. The model uses a clustering approach to identify groups of similar activity-travel behavior and relates them to household socioeconomic attributes. Minimally, the pattern generation model is then expanded to serve as the core component of a proposed activity-based microsimulation model that constructs complete origin-destination tables using a wholly activity-based approach. The techniques developed provide due diligence to the complex nature of activity-travel behavior in terms of spatial and temporal constraints, household interactions, and the derived nature of such behavior. A successful application of the expanded model is outlined using data from the 1994 Portland activity-travel survey.

Suggested Citation
Anup Kulkarni (2001) Modeling Activity Pattern Generation and Execution. PhD Dissertation. UC Irvine. Available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/99v1m5x0.

Phd Dissertation

Active Travel, Built Environment and Transit Access: A Micro-Analysis of Pedestrian Travel Behavior

Publication Date

January 1, 2014

Author(s)

Gaby Abdel-Salam

Areas of Expertise

Travel Behavior, Land Use, & the Built Environment
View Phd Dissertation

Abstract

The introduction of Senate Bill (SB 375) in 2008 stimulated more research linking travel behavior to the built environment. Smart growth tools mandated by this bill aim to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT), greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions and promote alternative modes to motorized travel. These tools encompass an array of land use improvements that are expected to influence active travel. Potential changes in the built environment may impact the frequency, amount and even the selection of routes for walking. Data used in this dissertation was obtained from Phase I of the Expo Study, a three-phase travel survey of residents living near the Expo Light Rail Line in Los Angeles, CA. Respondents carried GPS devices and accelerometers to track locations and activity levels; and completed seven-day trip logs. Phase I of the survey was administered in Fall 2011, prior to the introduction of the Expo Line in April 2012.This dissertation is comprised of three research topics. The first topic uses a “place-oriented” approach to examine where active travel occurs in neighborhoods adjacent to the Expo Light Rail Line. This chapter is based on the Behavioral Model of Environments, which emphasizes the influence of the physical environment on individuals’ travel behavior and route choices. Results indicate that the routes selected by pedestrians have higher densities of commercial and retail centers and better access to more transit stations. The second research topic uses an ecological modeling approach. Multilevel analysis of the effects of the built environment on active transport was performed in three geographic levels of aggregation near respondents’ homes. Examination of land uses at the half-mile extent yield the least number of significant results. In contrast, land uses examined at the segment-level and quarter-mile distance from homes emphasize the importance of street connectivity and green space on increasing transport-related physical activity (TPA). This suggests the importance of analyzing the data at finer geographic levels.The third research topic proposes a practical methodology of pedestrian route analysis in which observed GPS-tracked routes were examined and compared to GIS-simulated shortest paths. The two route types were compared over deviations in trip-level travel indices, respondents’ socio-demographic traits, time of day variations and differences in objectively measured built environment features along both sets of routes. Results suggest that observed routes diverged more from shortest paths with increasing distance and were more circuitous beyond the 2.4-mile threshold. Most walks were completed after the AM Off Peak time. With the exception of the Evening time, observed routes were found to be much longer in all time periods especially in the AM Peak time. Moreover, higher densities of commercial centers, local businesses and green spaces were observed more for GPS-tracked routes than for shortest paths. These routes also had more street intersections and transit stops. Overall, results imply that pedestrians selected routes that were longer than the respective shortest paths and that may have been due to greater access to amenities and activity centers.

Suggested Citation
Gaby Hamdi Abdel-Salam (2014) Active Travel, Built Environment and Transit Access: A Micro-Analysis of Pedestrian Travel Behavior. UC Irvine. Available at: https://uci.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_IRV_INST/1gpb62p/alma991003059819704701 (Accessed: October 12, 2023).

Phd Dissertation

Computational Models for Scheduling in Online Advertising

Publication Date

June 30, 2016

Author(s)

Dmitri Arkhipov

Areas of Expertise

Travel Behavior, Land Use, & the Built Environment
View Phd Dissertation

Abstract

Programmatic advertising is an actively developing industry and research area. Some of the research in this area concerns the development of optimal or approximately optimal contracts and policies between publishers, advertisers and intermediaries such as ad networks and ad exchanges. Both the development of contracts and the construction of policies governing their implementation are difficult challenges, and different models take different features of the problem into account. In programmatic advertising decisions are made in real time, and time is a scarce resource particularly for publishers who are concerned with content load times. Policies for advertisement placement must execute very quickly once content is requested; this requires policies to either be pre-computed and accessed as needed, or for the policy execution to be very efficient. We formulate a stochastic optimization problem for per publisher ad sequencing with binding latency constraints. Within our context an ad request lifecycle is modeled as a sequence of one by one solicitations (OBOS) subprocesses/lifecycle stages. From the viewpoint of a supply side platform (SSP) (an entity acting in proxy for a collection of publishers), the duration/span of a given lifecycle stage/subprocess is a stochastic variable. This stochasticity is due both to the stochasticity inherent in Internet delay times, and the lack of information regarding the decision processes of independent entities. In our work we model the problem facing the SSP, namely the problem of optimally or near-optimally choosing the next lifecycle stage of a given ad request lifecycle at any given time. We solve this problem to optimality (subject to the granularity of time) using a classic application of Richard Bellman’s dynamic programming approach to the 0/1 Knapsack Problem. The DP approach does not scale to a large number of lifecycle stages/subprocesses so a sub-optimal approach is needed. We use our DP formulation to derive a focused real time dynamic programming (FRTDP) implementation, a heuristic method with optimality guarantees for solving our problem. We empirically evaluate (through simulation) the performance of our FRTDP implementation relative to both the DP implementation (for tractable instances) and to several alternative heuristics for intractable instances. Finally, we make the case that our work is usefully applicable to problems outside the domain of online advertising.

Suggested Citation
DMITRI ARKHIPOV (2016) Computational Models for Scheduling in Online Advertising. PhD Dissertation. UC Irvine. Available at: https://uci.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_IRV_INST/1gpb62p/alma991001362249704701.

Phd Dissertation

Mediating change and changes in mediation: Adapting ICTs for just environmental governance

Publication Date

January 1, 2010

Author(s)

C. Smith

Areas of Expertise

Intelligent Transportation Systems, Emerging Technologies, & Big Data Travel Behavior, Land Use, & the Built Environment
View Phd Dissertation

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are important research areas for scientists examining theories of communication, conflict resolution and collaborative decision-making, particularly because they offer impressive analytical capabilities and the capacity to integrate different modes of deliberation and forms of content. The exponential growth in the adoption and diffusion of these digital media currently has, and will likely continue to have, considerable social ecological implications in part because ICTs are increasingly positioned as places of convergence for politically contested information and knowledge. However, the nature of these implications, especially questions concerning how these technologies influence or mediate changes in policy and/or the policymaking process itself is unclear and controversial. Technological enthusiasts, for example, argue that ICTs have potential to upgrade democracy by improving the way we devise means to clarified ends whereas technological pessimists challenge that, far from ushering in a new age of democracy, new media technologies actually hinder coordinative action by reducing more personalized modes of communication. This research examined both face-to-face and online communication facilitated by three institutions in California—the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), the California Environmental Justice Action Committee (CEJAC) and Communities for a Better Environment (CBE)—as they sought to reach decisions concerning a series of environmental justice-related issues. Informed by a mixed methodological approach, this research characterizes the challenges and opportunities afforded by the traditional face-to-face (F2F) settings hosted by the three organizations (i.e., public hearings, public meetings and workshops, respectively) and communication within these settings differed from and integrated with EJ communication in the institutions’ corresponding new media or ICT-based environments (i.e., general content websites and interactive mapping applications). The research found that, while there were obvious limitations to F2F participation, the pragmatic modes of communication that took place in these three settings were not replicated in the online environment. Most troublesome was that ICT-based communication tended to be less trustworthy, interactive and coherent than corresponding communication in F2F settings. The dissertation concludes by putting forth an alternative ICT-based framework for just environmental governance that enables interdependent, multi-directional and adaptive forms of knowledge production and decision-making.

Suggested Citation
C. Scott Smith (2010) Mediating change and changes in mediation: Adapting ICTs for just environmental governance. Ph.D.. University of California, Irvine. Available at: https://uci.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_IRV_INST/1gpb62p/alma991007626549704701 (Accessed: October 13, 2023).

Phd Dissertation

Commuting behavior of two-worker households in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area

Publication Date

June 30, 1993

Associated Project

Author(s)

Seyoung Kim

Areas of Expertise

Travel Behavior, Land Use, & the Built Environment
View Phd Dissertation

Abstract

This is the first study that analyzes two-worker and single-worker households’ commuting behavior in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Areas. This study uses “Excess commuting” to test how important commuting distance is for urban workers to choose their residential and job locations in Los Angeles area. Individual location data used are from the Transit Panel Study Survey, 1991. The results show that commuting distance is still an important factor for urban workers to make location decisions, contrary to other study results. I find that if two-worker households’ commuting distance optimization process is restricted by their members job locations, two-worker households’ excess commute is smaller than single-worker households’. Also, the results suggest that spatial mismatch restricts unskilled workers in single-worker households more than it restricts workers from other groups. Further, the results show that the commuting distances of two-worker households are affected more by jobs-housing balance in the region than are the commuting distances of single-worker households. I find that two-worker household males behave differently from two-worker household females, and that two-worker household females behave differently from single-worker household females. I also find that there are sharper gender differences among whites than among nonwhites.

Suggested Citation
Seyoung Kim (1993) Commuting behavior of two-worker households in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. PhD Dissertation. UC Irvine. Available at: https://uci.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_IRV_INST/1go3t9q/alma991035093099204701.

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Phd Dissertation

Local urban development stakeholders in a globalizing context: Civil society, urban governance and urban poverty in Harare, Zimbabwe

Publication Date

June 30, 2003

Author(s)

Doug Feremenga

Areas of Expertise

Travel Behavior, Land Use, & the Built Environment
View Phd Dissertation

Abstract

This study examines the impacts of globalization on domestic policy and the concomitant effects on local development processes in Harare, Zimbabwe. It assesses the various processes and strategies of engaging disparate development stakeholders in urban governance and evaluates the experiences and capacities of civil society in urban development. Macroeconomic instability and other external forces such as globalization constraints, the legacy of colonialism, and post independent structural adjustment programs, on one hand; rapid urban population growth, along with institutional, financial, and administrative incapacities and outdated legal and governance traditions at the urban and national levels, on the other, have resulted in failure of government to provide social services or even to maintain basic infrastructure. Consequently, civil society is increasingly being viewed as a mechanism for satisfying the needs of the urban poor, and is even viewed by some as a universal remedy for development challenges in developing countries like Zimbabwe. This study, therefore, critically examines these organizations within the Zimbabwean context to assess their effectiveness. The main finding of this study is that, in Zimbabwe, the only civil society activities permitted are those that do not threaten to challenge the status quo. While the efficacy of organizations and groups that advocate for change is questionable in the face of a powerful, and in some cases hostile, state that restricts and sometimes prevents them from working, the role of welfare and developmental NGOs remains paramount. Civil society does not exist in a vacuum; it is dependent on the political context comprising the state, political institutions, and political culture that surround it. Contrary to the belief that globalization renders the state obsolete, the Zimbabwean government still plays a central role in development issues. The effectiveness of civil society depends on the nature of its internal organization and operations, as well as its relationships with the state and other urban development stakeholders. This study concludes that since their roles are complementary and mutually reinforcing, civil society and the state need each other, and they must work together in order to achieve human sustainable development of all sectors of society.

Suggested Citation
Doug Feremenga (2003) Local urban development stakeholders in a globalizing context: Civil society, urban governance and urban poverty in Harare, Zimbabwe. PhD Dissertation. UC Irvine. Available at: https://uci.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_IRV_INST/17uq3m8/alma991035093303904701.

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