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Toronto Activity Panel Survey: Demonstrating the Benefits of a

Multiple Instrument Panel Survey

Matthew J. Roorda

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

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Can we ever obtain the data we would like to have?

ACTIVITY ATTRIBUTES OF INTEREST:

Type, purpose, meaning, utility, project, participants, time, duration, location, tools

SCHEDULING ATTRIBUTES OF INTEREST:

When was activity first conceived? Scheduled for the 1st time? Original aim? Was the aim achieved? Could other activities have replaced it? Activity priority? Activity Flexibility in time and space? Cost of dropping or changing an activity etc…

(Axhausen, 1998)

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Can we ever obtain the data we would like to have?

AXHAUSEN’S CONCLUSIONS:

• We will never obtain all the data we need from one person

• We need to distribute the data needs across multiple persons using multiple survey instruments

OUR REPONSE:

• Toronto Area Panel Survey

• 3-wave, multi-instrument panel survey

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Overview of the Panel Survey• 3 Waves – households contacted once a year

• 271 households

• Multiple household members participate

• Study Area: City of Toronto, Urban York Region, Mississauga

• A panel survey is being conducted simultaneously in Quebec City

• Core Survey Data – 2 day activity diary

• Additional data collected for each wave

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Multiple Instrument Design

ALL WAVES2–day detailed

activitydiary

WAVE 1Detailed

Scheduling Info,7 days

WAVE 2Stated Preference

SchedulingConflicts

CORE SURVEY DATA

WAVE 3GPS route

tracking

ADDITIONAL SURVEY DATA

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Wave 1 – CHASEChase SchedulingDiary

InterviewHousehold

Household keeps schedules on laptopfor 7 days

Follow-upInterview

Retrieve datafrom laptop

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Wave 1 – CHASE

Additional Survey Data• 7-days activity schedule with activity description, time,

duration, location, mode, participants,

• Planning process for all activities (when planned, modified, deleted)

• Revealed information on how scheduling conflicts handled

• Flexibility of activities in time, space, mode, participants

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Wave 2 – Stated Adaptation Survey• Participants keep a 2 day “memory jogger” diary

• Activity diary is retrieved by telephone

• ONE out-of-home activity chosen randomly from the person’s diary. Stated Adaptation questions are asked about that activity.

• Set of TWO consecutive activities is chosen randomly. Stated Adaptation questions asked to to try to assess activity priority.

• Purpose – understand conflict resolution strategies

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Wave 2 – Stated Adaptation SurveyExample Questions:

“What would have happened if you had a 1 hour delay in getting to this activity?”

“What would you have done if the car mode was not available to get to that activity?”

“Imagine that work was going to take longer than you planned. This would have caused you to be 1 hour late for your dinner engagement. What would you have done?”

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Wave 3 – GPS Tracking?• Survey not yet designed

• Possibly a GPS unit with a hand-held scheduling device

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Benefits of Using a Multi-Instrument Panel

• Obtain benefits of a multi-wave panel (core data collected in each year is consistent)– long vs short term dynamics of scheduling behaviour– Assess behaviour changes in response to other changes in

the household

• Benefits of Multi-Instrument- assess instrument bias (core data collected in different

ways)- Many more additional data elements- Survey more interesting for respondents (lower rates of

attrition)

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An Example Person – Wave 1

HomeSleep

Breakfast

HomeCleaning

MealTV

Wash/dressSleep

Work

Shop

HomeSleep

Breakfast

HomeCleaning

MealTV

Wash/dressSleep

Work

Bank

Post Office

GetNewspaper

6:00am

3:30pm

4:30pm

6:00am

3:00pm

3:45pm

4:15pm5:15pm

Thursday Friday

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The Same Person – Wave 2

HomeSleep

BreakfastReady for work

HomePlay with kidsPrepare dinner

Eat dinner

Work

5:50

Thursday Friday

HomeKids to bed

Sleep

Coffee

WorkLoc’n 2

Work

Shop

Drop off wife VisitFriendPickup wife

10:30

10:5013:3014:30

15:00

18:1518:25

21:3021:40

HomeSleep

Ready for work

HomeClean house

Prepare dinnerEat dinner

Work

5:40

HomeKids homework

Coffee

WorkLoc’n 2

Work

Shop

9:10

9:3014:0815:00

15:50

18:15

Drop off wife

Pickup wife

18:25

HomeKids to bed

Sleep

21:45

22:00

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Core Survey Data ComparisonData Element Wave 1 Wave 2 (1st 24)

Avg Activities/Day – weekday 13.70 13.14

Avg Activities/Day – weekend 13.12 12.32

Avg Trips/Day – weekday 4.44 4.91

Avg Trips/Day – weekend 3.51 2.82

% Trips by Transit - weekday 12.9% 5.6%

% Trips by Transit – weekend 4.4% 0%

Lots of other comparative statistics can be generated…

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Other Ideas for AnalysisComparison of the Core 2-day Survey

• Further explore habitual behaviour– Are preplanned activities more habitual than spontaneous

activities?– Which elements of a schedule are consistent from year to

year? Departure time for the 1st activity?

• Assessment of survey instruments– Assess whether differences in waves be attributed to

survey instrument? Or are there real shifts in behaviour over time?

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Ideas for AnalysisExploiting the Additional Data from Each Wave

– Can we summarize the planning behaviour from Wave 1 into some person attributes that can be used to better explain executed schedules in Wave2? (e.g. Organized person vs scatterbrain?)

– Revealed (Wave 1) vs hypothetical (Wave 2) scheduling strategies. Are they consistent?

– Build scheduling rules for modelling