IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v86y2016icp177-193.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How flexible is flexible? Accounting for the effect of rescheduling possibilities in choice of departure time for work trips

Author

Listed:
  • Thorhauge, Mikkel
  • Cherchi, Elisabetta
  • Rich, Jeppe

Abstract

In departure time studies it is crucial to ascertain whether or not individuals are flexible in their choices. Previous studies have found that individuals with flexible work times have a lower value of time for late arrivals. Flexibility is usually measured in terms of flexible work start time or in terms of constraints in arrival time at work. Although used for the same purpose, these two questions can convey different types of information. Moreover, constraints in departure time are often related not only to the main work activity, but to all daily activities. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of constraints in work and in other daily trips/activities on the willingness to shift departure time and the willingness to pay for reducing travel time and travel delay. We set up a survey to collect detailed data on the full 24-hour out-of-home activities and on the constraints for each of these activities. We then built a stated preference experiment to infer preferences on departure time choice, and estimated a mixed logit model, based on the scheduling model, to account for the effects of daily activity schedules and their constraints. Our results show that measuring flexibility in terms of work start time or constraints at work does not provide exactly the same information. Since one-third of the workers with flexible working hours in the survey indicated that they have restrictions on late work-arrival times, their willingness to pay will be overestimated (almost doubled) if flexibility information is asked only in terms of fixed/flexible working hours. This clearly leads to different conclusion in terms of demand sensitivity to reschedule to a later departure time. We also found that having other activities and constraints during the day increases the individuals’ willingness to pay to avoid being late at work, where the presence of constraints on daily activities other than work is particularly relevant for individuals with no constraints at work. The important impact of these findings is that if we neglect the presence of constraints, as is common practise in transport models, it will generally lead to biased value-of-time estimates. Results clearly show that the shift in the departure time, especially towards a late departure time, is strongly overestimated (the predicted shift is more than double) when the effect of non-work activities and their constraints is not accounted for.

Suggested Citation

  • Thorhauge, Mikkel & Cherchi, Elisabetta & Rich, Jeppe, 2016. "How flexible is flexible? Accounting for the effect of rescheduling possibilities in choice of departure time for work trips," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 177-193.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:86:y:2016:i:c:p:177-193
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2016.02.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096585641600032X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2016.02.006?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. Lam, Terence C. & Small, Kenneth A., 0. "The value of time and reliability: measurement from a value pricing experiment," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 231-251, April.
    2. Small, Kenneth A, 1987. "A Discrete Choice Model for Ordered Alternatives," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(2), pages 409-424, March.
    3. Barry Ubbels & Yin-Yen Tseng & Erik T. Verhoef, 2005. "Value of time, schedule delay and reliability - estimates based on choice behaviour of Dutch commuters facing congestion," ERSA conference papers ersa05p202, European Regional Science Association.
    4. Akar, Gulsah & Clifton, Kelly J. & Doherty, Sean T., 2012. "Redefining activity types: Who participates in which leisure activity?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1194-1204.
    5. Tian, Li-Jun & Huang, Hai-Jun, 2015. "Modeling the modal split and trip scheduling with commuters’ uncertainty expectation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 244(3), pages 815-822.
    6. Small, K. & Noland, R. & Koskenoja, P., 1995. "Socio-economic Attributes And Impacts Of Travel Reliability: A Stated Preference Approach," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt82n2w53k, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    7. Small, Kenneth A., 2001. "The Value of Pricing," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt0rm449sx, University of California Transportation Center.
    8. Mannering, Fred L., 1989. "Poisson analysis of commuter flexibility in changing routes and departure times," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 53-60, February.
    9. Stephane Hess & John Polak & Andrew Daly & Geoffrey Hyman, 2007. "Flexible substitution patterns in models of mode and time of day choice: new evidence from the UK and the Netherlands," Transportation, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 213-238, March.
    10. Noland, Robert B. & Small, Kenneth A. & Koskenoja, Pia Maria & Chu, Xuehao, 1998. "Simulating travel reliability," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 535-564, September.
    11. Paul Koster & Erik T. Verhoef, 2012. "A Rank-dependent Scheduling Model," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 46(1), pages 123-138, January.
    12. Vickrey, William S, 1969. "Congestion Theory and Transport Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 251-260, May.
    13. Joan L. Walker & Moshe Ben-Akiva & Denis Bolduc, 2007. "Identification of parameters in normal error component logit-mixture (NECLM) models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(6), pages 1095-1125.
    14. Hess, Stephane & Daly, Andrew & Rohr, Charlene & Hyman, Geoff, 2007. "On the development of time period and mode choice models for use in large scale modelling forecasting systems," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 802-826, November.
    15. de Jong, Gerard & Daly, Andrew & Pieters, Marits & Vellay, Carine & Bradley, Mark & Hofman, Frank, 2003. "A model for time of day and mode choice using error components logit," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 245-268, May.
    16. Koster, Paul & Kroes, Eric & Verhoef, Erik, 2011. "Travel time variability and airport accessibility," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 1545-1559.
    17. Juan de Dios Ortúzar & Elisabetta Cherchi & Luis Ignacio Rizzi, 2014. "Transport research needs," Chapters, in: Stephane Hess & Andrew Daly (ed.), Handbook of Choice Modelling, chapter 29, pages 688-698, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Börjesson, Maria & Eliasson, Jonas & Franklin, Joel, 2012. "Valuations of travel time variability in scheduling versus mean-variance models," Working papers in Transport Economics 2012:2, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    19. Jason D. Lemp & Kara M. Kockelman & Paul Damien, 2012. "A Bivariate Multinomial Probit Model for Trip Scheduling: Bayesian Analysis of the Work Tour," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(3), pages 405-424, August.
    20. Bianchi, R. & Jara-Di­az, S. R. & de D. Ortúzar, J., 1998. "Modelling new pricing strategies for the Santiago Metro," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 223-232, October.
    21. Jenelius, Erik, 2012. "The value of travel time variability with trip chains, flexible scheduling and correlated travel times," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 762-780.
    22. Fosgerau, Mogens & Karlström, Anders, 2010. "The value of reliability," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 38-49, January.
    23. Kristoffersson, Ida, 2013. "Impacts of time-varying cordon pricing: Validation and application of mesoscopic model for Stockholm," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 51-60.
    24. Small, Kenneth A, 1982. "The Scheduling of Consumer Activities: Work Trips," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(3), pages 467-479, June.
    25. Yáñez, M.F. & Raveau, S. & Ortúzar, J. de D., 2010. "Inclusion of latent variables in Mixed Logit models: Modelling and forecasting," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 44(9), pages 744-753, November.
    26. Asensio, Javier & Matas, Anna, 2008. "Commuters' valuation of travel time variability," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 1074-1085, November.
    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. Guerrero, Thomas E. & Guevara, C. Angelo & Cherchi, Elisabetta & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2022. "Characterizing the impact of discrete indicators to correct for endogeneity in discrete choice models," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    2. Haiyan Zhu & Hongzhi Guan & Yan Han & Wanying Li, 2022. "Study on Peak Travel Avoidance Behavior of Car Travelers during Holidays," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Geng, Kexin & Wang, Yacan & Cherchi, Elisabetta & Guarda, Pablo, 2023. "Commuter departure time choice behavior under congestion charge: Analysis based on cumulative prospect theory," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    4. Zheng Li & Jingjing Zeng, 2023. "Increasing relative risk taking in a choice context with source-dependent travel time risks," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 2441-2460, December.
    5. Maria Warne & Åsa Svensson & Lina Tirén & Erika Wall, 2020. "On Time: A Qualitative Study of Swedish Students’, Parents’ and Teachers’ Views on School Attendance, with a Focus on Tardiness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-18, February.
    6. Haiyan Zhu & Hongzhi Guan & Yan Han & Wanying Li, 2019. "A Study of Tourists’ Holiday Rush-Hour Avoidance Travel Behavior Considering Psychographic Segmentation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-20, July.
    7. Pudāne, Baiba, 2019. "Departure Time Choice and Bottleneck Congestion with Automated Vehicles: Role of On-board Activities," MPRA Paper 96328, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Li, Haiying & Li, Xian & Xu, Xinyue & Liu, Jun & Ran, Bin, 2018. "Modeling departure time choice of metro passengers with a smart corrected mixed logit model - A case study in Beijing," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 106-121.
    9. Yi-Shih Chung & Szu-Yu Tu, 2021. "Tri-reference-point hypothesis development for airport ground access behaviors," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2159-2185, October.
    10. Wan, Li & Tang, Junqing & Wang, Lihua & Schooling, Jennifer, 2021. "Understanding non-commuting travel demand of car commuters – Insights from ANPR trip chain data in Cambridge," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 76-87.
    11. Badiola, Nicolás & Raveau, Sebastián & Galilea, Patricia, 2019. "Modelling preferences towards activities and their effect on departure time choices," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 39-51.
    12. Nadi, Ali & Sharma, Salil & van Lint, J.W.C. & Tavasszy, Lóránt & Snelder, Maaike, 2022. "A data-driven traffic modeling for analyzing the impacts of a freight departure time shift policy," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 130-150.
    13. Munch, Emmanuel & Proulhac, Laurent, 2023. "Is work hours' flexibility really a solution to morning peak period congestion? Comparative analysis between Paris and San Francisco," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    14. Ulrik Berggren & Karin Brundell-Freij & Helena Svensson & Anders Wretstrand, 2021. "Effects from usage of pre-trip information and passenger scheduling strategies on waiting times in public transport: an empirical survey based on a dedicated smartphone application," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 503-531, October.
    15. Wang, Yacan & Geng, Kexin & May, Anthony D. & Zhou, Huiyu, 2022. "The impact of traffic demand management policy mix on commuter travel choices," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 74-87.
    16. Haiyan Zhu & Hongzhi Guan & Yan Han & Wanying Li, 2020. "Can Road Toll Convince Car Travelers to Adjust Their Departure Times? Accounting for the Effect of Choice Behavior under Long and Short Holidays," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-29, December.
    17. Thorhauge, Mikkel & Swait, Joffre & Cherchi, Elisabetta, 2020. "The habit-driven life: Accounting for inertia in departure time choices for commuting trips," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 272-289.
    18. Han, Bilin & Kim, Jinhee & Timmermans, Harry, 2023. "Work schedule arrangements in two-adult households with children," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    19. Thorhauge, Mikkel & Kassahun, Habtamu Tilahun & Cherchi, Elisabetta & Haustein, Sonja, 2020. "Mobility needs, activity patterns and activity flexibility: How subjective and objective constraints influence mode choice," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 255-272.

    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. Xiao, Yu & Coulombel, Nicolas & Palma, André de, 2017. "The valuation of travel time reliability: does congestion matter?," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 113-141.
    2. Zhaoqi Zang & Xiangdong Xu & Kai Qu & Ruiya Chen & Anthony Chen, 2022. "Travel time reliability in transportation networks: A review of methodological developments," Papers 2206.12696, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2022.
    3. Mikkel Thorhauge & Akshay Vij & Elisabetta Cherchi, 2021. "Heterogeneity in departure time preferences, flexibility and schedule constraints," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1865-1893, August.
    4. Carrion, Carlos & Levinson, David, 2012. "Value of travel time reliability: A review of current evidence," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 720-741.
    5. Wang, Qian & Sundberg, Marcus & Karlström, Anders, 2013. "Scheduling choices under rank dependent utility maximization," Working papers in Transport Economics 2013:16, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    6. Beaud, Mickael & Blayac, Thierry & Stéphan, Maïté, 2016. "The impact of travel time variability and travelers’ risk attitudes on the values of time and reliability," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 207-224.
    7. Badiola, Nicolás & Raveau, Sebastián & Galilea, Patricia, 2019. "Modelling preferences towards activities and their effect on departure time choices," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 39-51.
    8. Li, Zhi-Chun & Huang, Hai-Jun & Yang, Hai, 2020. "Fifty years of the bottleneck model: A bibliometric review and future research directions," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 311-342.
    9. Börjesson, Maria & Eliasson, Jonas & Franklin, Joel, 2012. "Valuations of travel time variability in scheduling versus mean-variance models," Working papers in Transport Economics 2012:2, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    10. Soriguera, Francesc, 2014. "On the value of highway travel time information systems," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 294-310.
    11. Stefanie Peer & Erik Verhoef & Jasper Knockaert & Paul Koster & Yin‐Yen Tseng, 2015. "Long‐Run Versus Short‐Run Perspectives On Consumer Scheduling: Evidence From A Revealed‐Preference Experiment Among Peak‐Hour Road Commuters," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56(1), pages 303-323, February.
    12. Khan, Mubassira & Machemehl, Randy, 2017. "Commercial vehicles time of day choice behavior in urban areas," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 68-83.
    13. Abegaz, Dereje & Hjorth, Katrine & Rich, Jeppe, 2017. "Testing the slope model of scheduling preferences on stated preference data," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 409-436.
    14. Brey, Raúl & Walker, Joan L., 2011. "Latent temporal preferences: An application to airline travel," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 880-895, November.
    15. Kato, Hironori & Kaneko, Yuichiro & Soyama, Yoshihiko, 2014. "Economic benefits of urban rail projects that improve travel-time reliability: Evidence from Tokyo, Japan," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 202-210.
    16. Wang, Qian & Sundberg, Marcus & Karlström, Anders, 2013. "On the other half of the story: allowing for discrete penalties for excessive travel times in scheduling models," Working papers in Transport Economics 2013:15, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    17. Thorhauge, Mikkel & Swait, Joffre & Cherchi, Elisabetta, 2020. "The habit-driven life: Accounting for inertia in departure time choices for commuting trips," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 272-289.
    18. Tan, Zhijia & Yang, Hai & Guo, Renyong, 2014. "Pareto efficiency of reliability-based traffic equilibria and risk-taking behavior of travelers," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 16-31.
    19. Paul Koster & Hans Koster, 2013. "Analysing Heterogeneity in the Value of Travel Time and Reliability: A Semiparametric Estimation Approach," ERSA conference papers ersa13p1032, European Regional Science Association.
    20. Stefanie Peer & Erik Verhoef & Jasper Knockaert & Paul Koster & Yin-Yen Tseng, 2011. "Long-Run vs. Short-Run Perspectives on Consumer Scheduling: Evidence from a Revealed-Preference Experiment among Peak-Hour Road Commuters," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-181/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 25 Aug 2014.

    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:86:y:2016:i:c:p:177-193. 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.