An analysis of activity time use on vehicle usage rationed days

Vehicle usage rationing, as a travel demand management policy, has been implemented in several large cities, but the actual travel behavior on rationed days has received limited attention in the literature. Under long term vehicle usage rationing, travelers may choose to reschedule their weekly activity time allocation and undertake flexible activities on non-rationed days. To better understand this behavioral response, this paper investigates car owners’ variability in time use on rationed days and non-rationed days using data from a 7-day GPS based activity travel survey in Beijing, China. Results from descriptive analysis and two structural equation models suggest that there is a high proportion of intra-personal variability for maintenance and discretionary activities on rationed vs non-rationed days. Specifically, the proportion of the intra-personal variability is 51.5 % for subsistence activities, but increases to 62.1 and 69.3 % for maintenance and discretionary activities, respectively. Furthermore, socioeconomic demographic variables such as age and bike ownership have significant impacts on time use patterns under rationing. These findings provide evidence of the variability in time use between rationed and non-rationed days, and suggest that the behavioral response of travelers in rescheduling activities between rationed and non-rationed days should be taken into consideration when analyzing the effects of rationing policy.