The Development of Trip Chaining Approaches in Travel Demand Modelling

The purpose of this paper is to incorporate trip chaining into travel demand analysis, and also to develop a model for an estimation of trip generation. Before the discussion on the model formulation, a brief historical review of trip chaining approaches is presented, and some validations of those approaches are explored. The model proposed here is able to explain the derived nature of travel demand due to various kinds of business activities in a metropolitan area. One particular concern is to describe the cycle-sojourn zone distribution, which plays an important role for generating a sequence of business trips. In this model, the cycle-sojourn zone distribution is formulated by applying an entropy maximizing distribution model of the gravity type. From its application, it can be found that this model is useful for representing business trip chaining behaviours in a single day

A Time-Space Analysis of Urban Activities with Focus on the Relationship between ICT and Activity-Travel

Information and communications technology (ICT) has evolved substantially and impacted urban residents’ everyday life quite substantially in the past decade. The rapid spread of mobile telecommunications technologies has produced significant changes in relationships among communications, marketing and distribution, and transportation. As mobile technologies diminish time-space constraints that have governed telecommunication, they are prompting the emergence of new life styles with unprecedented ways in which urban space is consumed. The focus of this study is on how mobile telecommunication technologies have influenced daily activity and travel behaviors of urban residents. Temporal and spatial characteristics of their activity-travel patterns are empirically analyzed using activity diary data sets collected by the authors in the Kofu area of Japan. The survey is designed with the intent of capturing both patterns of movements in the urban area and patterns of activities that induced the movements. Questions regarding telecommunications activities are introduced into the activity-travel diary that had been developed by the authors to facilitate the acquisition of information on the occurrence and contents of telecommunications activities. The analytical framework of this study is formed by integrating urban residents’ time-space paths and virtual links representing telecommunications activities. Time-space paths are formed in a physical urban space while satisfying temporal and spatial constraints imposed by Hägerstrand’s prism. Conventional means of inter-individual communication (meeting, stationary telephones, mailed letters and telegrams) are all subject to certain constraints in the time-space domain. On the other hand, telecommunications activities by mobile technologies are not subjected to many of the constraints and can influence travel decisions more spontaneously than do conventional means of communication. Several hypotheses concerning ICT and activity patterns are postulated and empirically examined with the results of the diary surveys. Examples of the hypotheses are as follows. As the use of mobile telecommunications technologies increases, 1) the activity frequency tends to increase, 2) the spatial distribution of activities tends to spread out, that is, the action space tends to expand spatially, and 3) patterns of trip chaining tend to change themselves, with more stops incorporated into a home-based trip chain (i.e., a sequence of trips starting from and ending at home, through which a set of activity locations are visited). It is also hypothesized that 4) the way mobile technologies influence the individual’s activity-travel patterns varies by his personal characteristics, especially life cycle stage and life style. The Survey of Communication, Activity and Travel, denoted by “SCAT,” was conducted twice to form the database of this study. The first survey involved about 150 university students and data on weekly activity patterns and mobile telecommunication incidents were collected. The second survey addressed about 150 households (322 individuals) and activity diaries on two consecutive days and mobile telecommunication information were obtained. The first SCAT data are used to examine basic properties of ICT–activity-travel relationships of “heavy mobile-informed travelers” because students are certainly standing on the forefront of ICT use. On the other hand, the second SCAT data are used to analyze characteristics of joint activity engagement by household members as a result of ICT use among household members. Then, using both of the SCAT data sets, the hypotheses are examined and statistical evidence is presented. Finally, implications of the findings are summarized and directions are suggested for future research on ICT, activity and travel.

The Effect of Accessibility Improvement on Tourist Excursion Behaviors: Empirical Case Studies in Japan

One of the most important issues in a current situation in tourism in Japan is to identify how attractive cities or towns we can provide visiting tourists as a tourism product satisfying needs and wants. It is therefore necessary to grasp what kind of needs and wants potential tourists can obtain from their experience of visiting cities. For this purpose, an area marketing and management approach (AMMA) is expected to be effective one. In this paper a basic framework of our AMMA will be introduced. In addition, a practical procedure for quantitatively measuring the effect of accessibility improvement on tourist travel demand and activity patterns will be proposed. This paper discusses a practical method for measuring accessibility improvement effect focusing on the increase of the number of visitors to the tourism areas where the level of service in accessing transport facilities is planning to be improved. Two case studies in Japan will be presented in this paper

Empirical Analysis Of Leisure Driver Decision Structures Underlying Sa/Pa Choice Behaviors On Expressways In Japan

Recently, it has been recognized that leisure drivers have a variety of needs when using expressways and that service and parking areas (SA/PAs) are required to offer not only traditional rest stop services but also additional services, such as refreshments, dining, and souvenir shopping. As previous research on driver decisions related to SA/PA choice behaviors is limited, it is necessary to identify the factors determining SA/PA choice behaviors to develop marketing strategies for promoting SA/PA use. Therefore, one of the objectives of this research is to analyze leisure driver SA/PA choice behaviors and their level of customer satisfaction with SA/PA services. A paper-based questionnaire was administered to the drivers who stopped at the studied SA/PAs on the survey day; a web-based survey is planned as a complementary survey. Structural equation modeling was applied to represent the decision structure underlying SA/PA choice behavior. We also discuss marketing strategies to promote SA/PA use for leisure drivers. In addition, a SA/PA choice model was developed to identify whether a given driver would stop at any of the studied SA/PAs or not and to identify which SA/PA would be chosen

A Time-Space Analysis of Urban Activities with Focus on the Relationship between ICT and Activity-Travel

Information and communications technology (ICT) has evolved substantially and impacted urban residents' everyday life quite substantially in the past decade. The rapid spread of mobile telecommunications technologies has produced significant changes in relationships among communications, marketing and distribution, and transportation. As mobile technologies diminish time-space constraints that have governed telecommunication, they are prompting the emergence of new life styles with unprecedented ways in which urban space is consumed. The focus of this study is on how mobile telecommunication technologies have influenced daily activity and travel behaviors of urban residents. Temporal and spatial characteristics of their activity-travel patterns are empirically analyzed using activity diary data sets collected by the authors in the Kofu area of Japan. The survey is designed with the intent of capturing both patterns of movements in the urban area and patterns of activities that induced the movements. Questions regarding telecommunications activities are introduced into the activity-travel diary that had been developed by the authors to facilitate the acquisition of information on the occurrence and contents of telecommunications activities. The analytical framework of this study is formed by integrating urban residents' time-space paths and virtual links representing telecommunications activities. Time-space paths are formed in a physical urban space while satisfying temporal and spatial constraints imposed by Hägerstrand's prism. Conventional means of inter-individual communication (meeting, stationary telephones, mailed letters and telegrams) are all subject to certain constraints in the time-space domain. On the other hand, telecommunications activities by mobile technologies are not subjected to many of the constraints and can influence travel decisions more spontaneously than do conventional means of communication. Several hypotheses concerning ICT and activity patterns are postulated and empirically examined with the results of the diary surveys. Examples of the hypotheses are as follows. As the use of mobile telecommunications technologies increases, 1) the activity frequency tends to increase, 2) the spatial distribution of activities tends to spread out, that is, the action space tends to expand spatially, and 3) patterns of trip chaining tend to change themselves, with more stops incorporated into a home-based trip chain (i.e., a sequence of trips starting from and ending at home, through which a set of activity locations are visited). It is also hypothesized that 4) the way mobile technologies influence the individual's activity-travel patterns varies by his personal characteristics, especially life cycle stage and life style. The Survey of Communication, Activity and Travel, denoted by "SCAT,” was conducted twice to form the database of this study. The first survey involved about 150 university students and data on weekly activity patterns and mobile telecommunication incidents were collected. The second survey addressed about 150 households (322 individuals) and activity diaries on two consecutive days and mobile telecommunication information were obtained. The first SCAT data are used to examine basic properties of ICT–activity-travel relationships of "heavy mobile-informed travelers” because students are certainly standing on the forefront of ICT use. On the other hand, the second SCAT data are used to analyze characteristics of joint activity engagement by household members as a result of ICT use among household members. Then, using both of the SCAT data sets, the hypotheses are examined and statistical evidence is presented. Finally, implications of the findings are summarized and directions are suggested for future research on ICT, activity and travel

An Empirical Model of Expressway Drivers Behaviors on Stopover at sa/pa involving the Location Choice

Drivers on expressway have not only need of high speed and safety but also other various kinds of services for their comfortable traveling. The Japan expressway company (called NEXCO) privatized in 2005 has increasingly attached great importance to improvement of those services. Service and parking areas (SA/PAs) are consequently required to offer not only traditional rest stop services but also additional services, such as refreshments, dining, and souvenir shopping. Previous researches of driver decision-making on stopover at SA/PA and on which SA/PA is chosen have been hardly advanced because of lack of survey data. These data are clearly useful to identify the factors determining SA/PA choice behaviors and also to develop marketing strategies for promoting SA/PA use. This research aims to analyze driverfs decision structures on SA/PA choice behaviors and the level of customer satisfaction with SA/PA services. The web-based questionnaire surveys were conducted twice to the drivers who stopped at the studied SA/PAs on the surveyed period. One was done at the section on Chugoku expressway in 2012 and the other was on Sanyo expressway in 2013. Based on the results from our previous study, in which a structural equation model (SEM) was applied to represent the decision structure underlying SA/PA choice behavior using Chugoku expressway data in 2012, a discrete choice behavior model is developed to identify whether a given driver would stop at any of the studied SA/PAs or not and to identify which SA/PA would be chosen. In this modeling, two different types of the nested logit models, in which the upper level is the decision on stopover at SA/PA or not and the lower level is the one on choice of the location, are mainly calibrated using both the data set of Chugoku in 2012 and those of Sanyo in 2013. The goodness of fit of estimated models including statistical significance of estimated parameters are discussed to clarify the differences in determining factors between Chugoku and Sanyo expressways. The results indicate that both two types of nested logit models are significant in common while the goodness of fit for Chugoku models are different from that for Sanyo models. They also indicate that those differences are caused by driverfs characteristics such as travel distance and frequency of expressway use, and by SA/PA characteristics such as the contents of services and the CS (customer satisfaction rate) and the location distribution

The Long-Term Impact of COVID-19 on Inbound Tourism from China: Using 2020/2022 Web-Based Survey Data

This study discusses the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on inbound tourism from China, aiming to investigate its prospects during the post-pandemic period. After briefly reviewing trends concerning COVID-19 impact studies at home and abroad, basic results from two cross-sections of web-based data in 2020 and 2022 are introduced to identify how the pandemic impacted not only daily activity and travel patterns but also the intentions of visiting Japan in the post-pandemic period. Finally, we summarize the challenges that we should verify to support inbound tourism restoration policies

Whole Blood Interferon-Gamma Assay for Baseline Tuberculosis Screening among Japanese Healthcare Students

BACKGROUND: The whole blood interferon-gamma assay (QuantiFERON-TB-2G; QFT) has not been fully evaluated as a baseline tuberculosis screening test in Japanese healthcare students commencing clinical contact. The aim of this study was to compare the results from the QFT with those from the tuberculin skin test (TST) in a population deemed to be at a low risk for infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Healthcare students recruited at Okayama University received both the TST and the QFT to assess the level of agreement between these two tests. The interleukin-10 levels before and after exposure to M tuberculosis-specific antigens (early-secreted antigenic target 6-kDa protein [ESAT-6] and culture filtrate protein 10 [CFP-10]) were also measured. Of the 536 healthcare students, most of whom had been vaccinated with bacillus-Calmette-Guérin (BCG), 207 (56%) were enrolled in this study. The agreement between the QFT and the TST results was poor, with positive result rates of 1.4% vs. 27.5%, respectively. A multivariate analysis also revealed that the induration diameter of the TST was not affected by the interferon-gamma concentration after exposure to either of the antigens but was influenced by the number of BCG needle scars (p = 0.046). The whole blood interleukin-10 assay revealed that after antigen exposure, the median increases in interleukin-10 concentration was higher in the subgroup with the small increase in interferon-gamma concentration than in the subgroup with the large increase in interferon-gamma concentration (0.3 vs. 0 pg/mL; p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: As a baseline screening test for low-risk Japanese healthcare students at their course entry, QFT yielded quite discordant results, compared with the TST, probably because of the low specificity of the TST results in the BCG-vaccinated population. We also found, for the first time, that the change in the interleukin-10 level after exposure to specific antigens was inversely associated with that in the interferon-gamma level in a low-risk population