Fundamental analysis of trip patterns in urban area considering household composition in addition to gender and age

Abstract With increasing diversification of lifestyles in recent decades, it is becoming more necessary to consider factors other than gender and age, such as household composition, for accurate travel behavior analysis. In Japan, as a result of changing trends in society, such as the growing number of middle-aged singles or increase in the number of working mothers, travel behavior has become increasingly diversified. However, existing trip pattern research which focuses only on age and gender, is not able to capture variation based on household composition. This study found that same gender and age groups exhibit significantly different trip patterns compared to same household composition. This suggests that household composition is an important indicator for trip pattern analysis. Additionally, in order to capture travel behavior by household, the study argues that it is necessary to employ activity-based analysis, rather than trip-based analysis.