IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v82y2015icp47-64.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investigating the impacts of weather variability on individual’s daily activity–travel patterns: A comparison between commuters and non-commuters in Sweden

Author

Listed:
  • Liu, Chengxi
  • Susilo, Yusak O.
  • Karlström, Anders

Abstract

Understanding travel behaviour change under various weather conditions can help analysts and policy makers incorporate the uniqueness of local weather and climate within their policy design, especially given the fact that future climate and weather will become more unpredictable and adverse. Using datasets from the Swedish National Travel Survey and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute that spans a period of thirteen years, this study explores the impacts of weather variability on individual activity–travel patterns. In doing so, this study uses an alternative representation of weather from that of directly applying observed weather parameters. Furthermore, this study employs a holistic model structure. The model structure is able to analyse the simultaneous effects of weather on a wide range of interrelated travel behavioural aspects, which has not been investigated in previous weather studies. Structural equation models (SEM) are applied for this purpose. The models for commuters and non-commuters are constructed separately. The analysis results show that the effects of weather can be even more extreme when considering indirect effects from other travel behaviour indicators involved in the decision-making processes. Commuters are shown to be much less sensitive to weather changes than non-commuters. Variation of monthly average temperature is shown to play a more important role in influencing individual travel behaviour than variation of daily temperature relative to its monthly mean, whilst in the short term, individual activity–travel choices are shown to be more sensitive to the daily variation of the relative humidity and wind speed relative to the month mean. Poor visibility and heavy rain are shown to strongly discourage the intention to travel, leading to a reduction in non-work activity duration, travel time and the number of trips on the given day. These findings depict a more comprehensive picture of weather impact compared to previous studies and highlight the importance of considering interdependencies of activity travel indicators when evaluating weather impacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Chengxi & Susilo, Yusak O. & Karlström, Anders, 2015. "Investigating the impacts of weather variability on individual’s daily activity–travel patterns: A comparison between commuters and non-commuters in Sweden," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 47-64.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:82:y:2015:i:c:p:47-64
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2015.09.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856415002323
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2015.09.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Müller, Sven & Tscharaktschiew, Stefan & Haase, Knut, 2008. "Travel-to-school mode choice modelling and patterns of school choice in urban areas," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 342-357.
    2. Jean-Loup Madre & Kay Axhausen & Werner Brög, 2007. "Immobility in travel diary surveys," Transportation, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 107-128, January.
    3. Mitra, Raktim & Buliung, Ron N., 2012. "Built environment correlates of active school transportation: neighborhood and the modifiable areal unit problem," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 51-61.
    4. Stern,Nicholas, 2007. "The Economics of Climate Change," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521700801, September.
    5. Lars Böcker & Martin Dijst & Jan Prillwitz, 2013. "Impact of Everyday Weather on Individual Daily Travel Behaviours in Perspective: A Literature Review," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 71-91, January.
    6. Bergström, A. & Magnusson, R., 2003. "Potential of transferring car trips to bicycle during winter," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 649-666, October.
    7. Böcker, Lars & Prillwitz, Jan & Dijst, Martin, 2013. "Climate change impacts on mode choices and travelled distances: a comparison of present with 2050 weather conditions for the Randstad Holland," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 176-185.
    8. Susilo, Yusak O. & Kitamura, Ryuichi, 2008. "Structural changes in commuters' daily travel: The case of auto and transit commuters in the Osaka metropolitan area of Japan, 1980-2000," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 95-115, January.
    9. Khattak, Asad J. & De Palma, André, 1997. "The impact of adverse weather conditions on the propensity to change travel decisions: A survey of Brussels commuters," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 181-203, May.
    10. Ye, Xin & Pendyala, Ram M. & Gottardi, Giovanni, 2007. "An exploration of the relationship between mode choice and complexity of trip chaining patterns," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 96-113, January.
    11. Liu, Chengxi & Susilo, Yusak O. & Karlström, Anders, 2014. "Examining the impact of weather variability on non-commuters’ daily activity–travel patterns in different regions of Sweden," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 36-48.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yusak O. Susilo & Chengxi Liu & Maria Börjesson, 2019. "The changes of activity-travel participation across gender, life-cycle, and generations in Sweden over 30 years," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 793-818, June.
    2. Zhao, Jinbao & Wang, Jian & Xing, Zhaomin & Luan, Xin & Jiang, Yang, 2018. "Weather and cycling: Mining big data to have an in-depth understanding of the association of weather variability with cycling on an off-road trail and an on-road bike lane," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 119-135.
    3. Wei, Ming, 2022. "How does the weather affect public transit ridership? A model with weather-passenger variations," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    4. Kim, Minjun & Cho, Gi-Hyoug, 2021. "Analysis on bike-share ridership for origin-destination pairs: Effects of public transit route characteristics and land-use patterns," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    5. Wei, Ming, 2022. "Investigating the influence of weather on public transit passenger’s travel behaviour: Empirical findings from Brisbane, Australia," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 36-51.
    6. Wu, Jingwen & Liao, Hua, 2020. "Weather, travel mode choice, and impacts on subway ridership in Beijing," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 264-279.
    7. Ashley R. Coles & Kyle E. Walker, 2021. "Assessing motorist behavior during flash floods in Tucson, Arizona," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 3037-3057, December.
    8. Böcker, Lars & Dijst, Martin & Faber, Jan, 2016. "Weather, transport mode choices and emotional travel experiences," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 360-373.
    9. de Kruijf, Joost & van der Waerden, Peter & Feng, Tao & Böcker, Lars & van Lierop, Dea & Ettema, Dick & Dijst, Martin, 2021. "Integrated weather effects on e-cycling in daily commuting: A longitudinal evaluation of weather effects on e-cycling in the Netherlands," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 305-315.
    10. Zhou, Yufeng & Li, Zihao & Meng, Yangyang & Li, Zhongwen & Zhong, Maohua, 2021. "Analyzing spatio-temporal impacts of extreme rainfall events on metro ridership characteristics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 577(C).
    11. Susilo, Yusak & Liu, Chengxi & Börjesson, Maria, 2018. "The changes of activity-travel participation across gender, life-cycle, and generations in Sweden over 30 years," Working papers in Transport Economics 2018:8, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    12. Kimpton, Anthony & Loginova, Julia & Pojani, Dorina & Bean, Richard & Sigler, Thomas & Corcoran, Jonathan, 2022. "Weather to scoot? How weather shapes shared e-scooter ridership patterns," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Chengxi & Susilo, Yusak O. & Karlström, Anders, 2015. "The influence of weather characteristics variability on individual’s travel mode choice in different seasons and regions in Sweden," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 147-158.
    2. Chengxi Liu & Yusak O. Susilo & Anders Karlström, 2016. "Measuring the impacts of weather variability on home-based trip chaining behaviour: a focus on spatial heterogeneity," Transportation, Springer, vol. 43(5), pages 843-867, September.
    3. Liu, Chengxi & Susilo, Yusak O. & Karlström, Anders, 2014. "Examining the impact of weather variability on non-commuters’ daily activity–travel patterns in different regions of Sweden," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 36-48.
    4. Wessel, Jan, 2020. "Using weather forecasts to forecast whether bikes are used," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 537-559.
    5. Maurici Ruiz-Pérez & Joana Maria Seguí-Pons, 2020. "Transport Mode Choice for Residents in a Tourist Destination: The Long Road to Sustainability (the Case of Mallorca, Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-31, November.
    6. Wadud, Zia, 2014. "Cycling in a changed climate," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 12-20.
    7. Lanzendorf, Martin & Busch-Geertsema, Annika, 2014. "The cycling boom in large German cities—Empirical evidence for successful cycling campaigns," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 26-33.
    8. Chengxi Liu & Yusak O. Susilo & Anders Karlström, 2017. "Weather variability and travel behaviour – what we know and what we do not know," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(6), pages 715-741, November.
    9. Javier Anta & José B. Pérez-López & Ana Martínez-Pardo & Margarita Novales & Alfonso Orro, 2016. "Influence of the weather on mode choice in corridors with time-varying congestion: a mixed data study," Transportation, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 337-355, March.
    10. Markolf, Samuel A. & Hoehne, Christopher & Fraser, Andrew & Chester, Mikhail V. & Underwood, B. Shane, 2019. "Transportation resilience to climate change and extreme weather events – Beyond risk and robustness," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 174-186.
    11. Faber, R.M. & Jonkeren, O. & de Haas, M.C. & Molin, E.J.E. & Kroesen, M., 2022. "Inferring modality styles by revealing mode choice heterogeneity in response to weather conditions," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 282-295.
    12. Lu, Qing-Chang & Zhang, Junyi & Peng, Zhong-Ren & Rahman, ABM Sertajur, 2014. "Inter-city travel behaviour adaptation to extreme weather events," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 148-153.
    13. Ashley R. Coles & Kyle E. Walker, 2021. "Assessing motorist behavior during flash floods in Tucson, Arizona," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 3037-3057, December.
    14. Hong, Jinhyun & Philip McArthur, David & Stewart, Joanna L., 2020. "Can providing safe cycling infrastructure encourage people to cycle more when it rains? The use of crowdsourced cycling data (Strava)," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 109-121.
    15. Pojani, Dorina & Boussauw, Kobe, 2014. "Keep the children walking: active school travel in Tirana, Albania," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 55-65.
    16. Zidan Mao & Dick Ettema & Martin Dijst, 2018. "Analysis of travel time and mode choice shift for non-work stops in commuting: case study of Beijing, China," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 751-766, May.
    17. Kashfi, Syeed Anta & Bunker, Jonathan M. & Yigitcanlar, Tan, 2015. "Understanding the effects of complex seasonality on suburban daily transit ridership," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 67-80.
    18. Böcker, Lars & Prillwitz, Jan & Dijst, Martin, 2013. "Climate change impacts on mode choices and travelled distances: a comparison of present with 2050 weather conditions for the Randstad Holland," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 176-185.
    19. Li, Junlong & Li, Xuhong & Chen, Dawei & Godding, Lucy, 2018. "Assessment of metro ridership fluctuation caused by weather conditions in Asian context: Using archived weather and ridership data in Nanjing," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 356-368.
    20. Cools, Mario & Creemers, Lieve, 2013. "The dual role of weather forecasts on changes in activity-travel behavior," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 167-175.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:82:y:2015:i:c:p:47-64. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.