Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Implementing a household joint activity-travel multi- agent simulation tool: first results

  • Published:
Transportation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the social dimension of travel, and how travel decisions are influenced not only by the global state of the transportation system, but also by joint decisions and interactions with social contacts. Such joint decisions are particularly important for a variety of behaviors: leisure activities are often performed with social contacts, and their location and timing is thus the result of a joint process; household “maintenance” tasks, such as grocery shopping or driving the children to school, are allocated to one single member; and of course joint (car) travel is the result of complex joint decisions. For this reason, the need to include household and friendship relationships into mobility simulation frameworks is becoming more and more obvious. This paper presents a game theoretic framework for the study of joint decision making, as well as an algorithm to search for approximate solutions of the resulting game. An implementation of this algorithm for the household case, using the MATSim software framework, is proposed and tested. The implementation of this algorithm is tested for the Zürich area, Switzerland, focusing on the possibility to perform joint trips. Those results allow to identify strengths and weaknesses of the approach, and directions for future work.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Amt für Verkehr, Volkswirtschaftsdirektion Kanton Zürich.: Gesamtverkehrsmodell, webpage, March 2011, http://www.afv.zh.ch/internet/volkswirtschaftsdirektion/afv/de/home.html (2011)

  • Arentze, T.A., M. Kowald, Axhausen K.W.: A method to model population-wide social networks for large scale activity-travel micro-simulation. Paper presented at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., January 2012

  • Arentze, T.A., Timmermans, H.J.P.: A need-based model of multi-day, multi-person activity generation. Transp. Res. Part B 43(2), 251–265 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Axhausen, K.W.: Social networks and travel: Some hypotheses. In Donaghy, K. P., Pop- pelreuter, S., Rudinger G. (eds.) Social Dimensions of Sustainable Transport Transatlantic Perspectives. Ashgate, Aldershot (2005)

  • Axhausen, K.W.: Neue Modellansätze der Verkehrsnachfragesimulation: entwicklungslinien, Stand der Forschung, Forschungsperspektiven. Stadt Region Land 81, 149–164 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, M.A., Vovsha, P.: A model for joint choice of daily activity pattern types of household members. Transportation 32(5), 545–571 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carrasco, J.A., Habib, K.M.N.: Understanding the social embeddedness of activity- travel participation: The case of frequency and duration of social activities. Paper presented at the 12th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR), Jaipur, December 2009

  • Carrasco, J.A., Miller, E.J., Wellman, B.: How far and with whom do people socialize? Empirical evidence about the distance between social network members. Transp. Res. Rec. 2076, 114–122 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charypar, D., Nagel, K.: Generating complete all-day activity plans with genetic algorithms. Transportation 32(4), 369–397 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chow, J.Y., Recker, W.W.: Inverse optimization with endogenous arrival time constraints to calibrate the household activity pattern problem. Transp. Res. Part B 46(3), 463–479 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deutsch, K., Goulias, K.G.: Decision makers and socializers, social networks and the role of individuals as participants. Transportation 40(4), 755–771 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dubernet, T., Axhausen, K.W.: Including joint decision mechanisms in a multiagent transport simulation. Transp. Lett. 5(4), 175–183 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dugundji, E.R., Páez, A., Arentze, T.A.: Social networks, choices, mobility, and travel. Environ. Plan. B 35(6), 956–960 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dugundji, E.R., Páez, A., Arentze, T.A.: Urban mobility and social-spatial contact: introduction. Environ. Plan. A 44(5), 1011–1015 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dugundji, E.R., Páez, A., Arentze, T.A., Walker, J.L., Carrasco, J.A., Marchal, F., Nakanishi, H.: Transportation and social interactions. Transportation 45(4), 239–247 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  • Feil, M.: Choosing the daily schedule: expanding activity-based travel demand modelling, Ph.D. Thesis, ETH Zurich, Zurich, (2010)

  • Ficici, S.G.: Solution concepts in coevolutionary algorithms, Ph.D. Thesis, Brandeis University, Waltham (2004)

  • Ficici, S.G., Melnik, O., Pollack, J.B.: A game-theoretic and dynamical-systems analysis of selection method in coevolution. IEEE Trans. Evolut. Comput. 9(6), 580–602 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frei, A.: Networks, geography and travel: travel between infrastructure and social structure, Ph.D. Thesis, ETH Zurich, Zurich (2012)

  • Gan, L.P., Recker, W.W.: A mathematical programming formulation of the household activity rescheduling problem. Transp. Res. Part B 42(6), 571–606 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gliebe, J.P., Koppelman, F.S.: A model of joint activity participation. Transportation 1, 49–72 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gliebe, J.P., Koppelman, F.S.: Modeling household activity-travel interactions as parallel constrained choices. Transportation 32(5), 449–471 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Golob, T.F.: A simultaneous model of household activity participation and trip chain generation. Transp. Res. Part B 34(5), 355–376 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Golob, T.F., McNally, M.G.: A model of activity participation and travel interactions between household heads. Transp. Res. Part B 31(3), 177–194 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Habib, K.M.N., Carrasco, J.A.: Investigating the role of social networks in start time and duration of activities: trivariate simultaneous econometric model. Transp. Res. Rec. 2230, 1–8 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hackney, J.K.: Integration of social networks in a large-scale travel behavior microsimulation, Ph.D. Thesis, ETH Zurich, Zurich (2009)

  • Han, Q., Arentze, T.A., Timmermans, H.J.P., Janssens, D., Wets, G.: The effects of social networks on choice set dynamics: results of numerical simulations using an agent- based approach. Transp. Res. Part A 45(4), 310–322 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ho, C., Mulley, C.: Tour-based mode choice of joint household travel patterns on weekend and weekday. Transportation 40(4), 789–811 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horni, A.: Destination choice modeling of discretionary activities in transport microsimulations, Ph.D. Thesis, ETH Zurich, Zurich (2013)

  • Kato, H., Matsumoto, M.: Intra-household interaction in a nuclear family: a utility- maximizing approach. Transp. Res. Part B 43(2), 191–203 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liao, L., Arentze, T.A., Timmermans, H.J.P.: Multi-state supernetwork framework for the two-person joint travel problem. Transportation 40(4), 813–826 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma, H., Arentze, T.A., Timmermans, H.J.P.: Incorporating selfishness and altruism int dynamic joint activity-travel scheduling. Paper presented at the 13th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR), Toronto, July 2012

  • Ma, H., Ronald, N., Arentze, T.A., Timmermans, H.J.P.: New credit mechanism for semicooperative agent-mediated joint activity-travel scheduling. Transp. Res. Rec. 2230, 104–110 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meister, K.: Contribution to agent-based demand optimization in a multi-agent transport simulation, Ph.D. Thesis, ETH Zurich, Zurich (2011)

  • Meister, K., Balmer, M., Ciari,.F, Horni, A., Rieserm M., Waraich, R.A., Axhausen, K.W.: Large-scale agent-based travel demand optimization applied to Switzerland, including mode choice. Paper presented at the 12th World Conference on Transportation Research, Lisbon, July 2010

  • Meister, K., Frick, M., Axhausen, K.W.: A GA-based household scheduler. Transportation 32(5), 473–494 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, E.J., Roorda, M.J., Carrasco, J.A.: A tour-based model of travel mode choice. Transportation 32(4), 399–422 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore, J., Carrasco, J.A., Tudela, A.: Exploring the links between personal networks, time use, and the spatial distribution of social contacts. Transportation 40(4), 773–788 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Müller, K., Axhausen, K.W.: Using survey calibration and statistical matching to reweight and distribute activity schedules. Paper presented at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., January 2014

  • Nagel, K., Flötteröd, G.: Agent-based traffic assignment: going from trips to behavioral travelers. Paper presented at the 12th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR), Jaipur, December 2009

  • Popovici, E., Wiegand, R.P., De Jong, E.D.: Coevolutionary principles. In: Rozenberg, G., Bäck, T., Kok, J.N. (eds.) Handbook of Natural Computing, pp. 987–1033. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Recker, W.W.: The household activity pattern problem: general formulation and solution. Transp. Res. Part B 29(1), 61–77 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rieser, M.: Adding transit to an agent-based transportation simulation, Ph.D. Thesis, Technical University Berlin, Berlin (2010)

  • Ronald, N., Arentze, T.A., Timmermans, H.J.P.: Modelling social interactions between individuals for joint activity scheduling. Transp. Res. Part B 46(2), 276–290 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlich, R., Schönfelder, S., Hanson, S., Axhausen, K.W.: Structures of leisure travel: temporal and spatial variability. Transp. Rev. 24(2), 219–237 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schummer, J.R., Vohra, V.: Mechanism design without money. In: Nisan, N., Roughgarden, T., Tardos, É., Vazirani, V.V. (eds.) Algorithmic Game Theory, pp. 243–266. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  • Vovsha, P., Gupta, S.: A model for work activity schedules with synchronization for multiple-worker households. Transportation 40(4), 827–845 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vrtic, M., Fröhlich, P., Axhausen, K.W.: Schweizerische Netzmodelle für Strassen- und Schienenverkehr. In: Bieger, T., Lässer, C., Maggi, R. (eds.) Jahrbuch 2002/2003 Schweiz- erische Verkehrswirtschaft, pp. 119–140. Schweizerische Verkehrswissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (SVWG), St Gallen (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wardrop, J.G.: Some theoretical aspects of road traffic research. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng. 1(3), 325–362 (1952)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, J., Timmermans, H.J.P., Borgers, A.W.J.: A model of household task allocation and time use. Transp. Res. Part B 39(1), 81–95 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, J., Timmermans, H.J.P., Borgers, A.W.J.: Utility-maximizing model of household time use for independent, shared, and allocated activities incorporating group decision mechanisms. Transp. Res. Rec. 1807, 1–8 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The work presented in this paper is part of the project “EUNOIA: Evolutive User-centric Net- works for Intra-urban Accessibility”, funded under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme ICT Programme.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Transport Planning and Systems (IVT), ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland

    Thibaut Dubernet & Kay W. Axhausen

Authors
  1. Thibaut Dubernet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kay W. Axhausen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kay W. Axhausen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dubernet, T., Axhausen, K.W. Implementing a household joint activity-travel multi- agent simulation tool: first results. Transportation 42, 753–769 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-015-9645-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-015-9645-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation