Time-of-Day Dependence of Location Variability: Application of Passively-Generated Mobile Phone Dataset

An understanding of behavioral variability not only facilitates behavior modeling efforts but also provides insights into the complex factors underpinning people’s travel behaviors. Previous studies of behavioral variability have mostly concentrated on non-spatial aspects. This paper contributes to the existing literature by examining the spatial variability of activity location choices. Specifically, we are interested in how location variability is affected by time-of-day. Analyses are performed with a mobile phone data set consisting of the location traces of 744 individuals over two months. The use of mobile phone dataset for travel behavior studies is yet to be sufficiently explored by the travel behavior research community. This paper serves as one valuable addition towards this direction. First, the dependence of location variability on time-of-day is analyzed by comparing individuals’ location variability between different time periods of a day. Then, the time-of-day dependence of location variability is quantified by introducing time-of-day as a set of independent variables in explaining location variability. Significant time-of-day dependence of location variability is identified. Individuals are found to be more likely to vary their location choices in the afternoon than in the morning and evening. Time-of-day effect is found to take account for 36% of the total variations in location variability. The results emphasize the importance of time-of-day in shaping one’s location choice behavior and provide a basis for future modeling efforts of location choice.