THE TIME OF DAY HOUSEHOLD ACTIVITY PATTERN PROBLEM

This dissertation provides modifications and extensions to the Household Activity Pattern Problem (HAPP) to help move existing formulations from a laboratory prototype toward a more useable activity-based demand modeling product. Previous research on HAPP has been based on a pickup and delivery problem with time window constraints (PDPTW), which does not lend itself easily to application that is compatible with an activity-based forecasting model. Meanwhile, other research on activity based modeling lacks of the integration of household decisions regarding time-of-day arrival, activity duration and traffic congestion effects on travel. We borrow concepts from economic research and consider that each household member tries to obtain maximum utility by choosing arrival time of activities, choosing activity duration while minimizing travel times and travel costs throughout the course of the day. Chapter 1 provides the introduction and motivation of this research. Chapter 2 reviews pertinent literature relative to the activity-based approach, the HAPP model, and positions the dissertation research relative to the existing state-of-the-art. In Chapter 3 we propose extensions to HAPP (UHAPP) that incorporate time of day activity arrival utility and the utility of activity duration into HAPP as decision variables. In Chapter 4 we introduce the travel time-dependent household activity pattern problem model (TUHAPP), which extends the ability of HAPP to capture the time-of-day (TOD) difference in travel times and costs. In Chapter 5 we develop a framework using TUHAPP (UHAPP) as a regional activity-based demand model with a household travel survey. Chapter 6 provides conclusions and future research.