Modeling Measurements Towards Effect of Past Behavior on Travel Behavior

The inertia effect of past behavior has attracted attention in the travel behavioral literature because of its bearing on travel choice modeling. Several measurements have been proposed to model the inertia effects. However, no consensus concerning appropriate modelling methods is reached, which leads to potential biases in analysis. The study aims to conduct a comprehensive investigation of modeling measurements regarding inertia effects of past behavior from the perspectives of estimation, behavioral indications and predictions. Differing from existing literature that only focused on estimation performance, we examine the performances of different methods in predictions and behavioral interpretations. To our best knowledge, these aspects are not investigated in the literature based on empirical data. The necessary information for constructing the measurements, underlying consumption, significance in estimation, behaviorally implausible issue, performances in estimation and predictions for these measurements are all compared based on behavioral data. The results shed lights on performances and suitability of different measurements for inertia effects in terms of estimation, behavioral interpretation and prediction, which support the further investigations of past behavior on travelers’ choice behavior.