Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2014, Vol. 69 ›› Issue (10): 1547-1556.doi: 10.11821/dlxb201410013

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Time allocation to in-home and out-of-home non-work activities of urban residents: A case study of Shangdi-Qinghe area in Beijing

Zifeng CHEN(), Yanwei CHAI()   

  1. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • Received:2013-10-07 Revised:2014-07-13 Online:2014-10-20 Published:2014-10-20
  • Supported by:
    12th Five-Year National Science Supported Planning Project of China, No.2012BAJ05B04

Abstract:

With the growing mismatch between transport supply and demand in urban China, the analysis, forecasting and guidance of travel demand in a scientific and effective way has become a vital question for the sustainability of urban development. In western countries, the research of travel demand has developed from a trip-based perspective towards an activity-based perspective, and the analysis of the in-home and out-of-home activity participation, which is believed to be closely related to travel demand by many scholars, has provided significant implications for the research of travel demand. In China, however, there are few studies on the mechanism of travel demand from the perspective of in-home and out-of-home activity participation. Based on the first-hand data collected in the Beijing Residents' Activity and Travel Survey in 2012, this paper looked into the time allocation of in-home and out-of-home non-work activities of urban residents with an activity-based analysis of 460 respondents from the Shangdi-Qinghe area in Beijing, and thus tried to interpret the mechanism of the non-work travel demand of urban residents from an activity-based perspective. A series of structural equation models were applied to explore the determination of whether a non-work activity was pursued at home or away from home. The result of the models showed a high degree of good-of-fit. There were several main findings of the research: Firstly, there were significant differences between the duration of the in-home activities and that of the out-of-home activities. Secondly, there was a significant substitution between in-home and out-of-home activities. Thirdly, the time allocation of in-home and out-of-home non-work activities was affected by the work and commute duration and the socio-demographic characteristics, and there were endogenous links among different types of non-work activities. The result of this study may provide good implications for the modelling and influence of residents' travel demand.

Key words: travel demand, non-work activities, time allocation, structural equation model (SEM), activity-based approach