The current state of activity-based travel demand modelling and some possible next steps

Abstract

Despite the clear theoretical advantages of activity-based models of travel behaviour relative to trip-based models, adoption of such models in planning practice has been slow. This editorial discusses some reasons underlying this fact, including “locking into” outmoded model structures and software and challenges in translating research advances into practice. It argues for more widespread adoption of an activity-scheduling approach to the problem and identifies a number of key areas requiring new research in order to improve the operational capabilities of these models.