Utilising activity space concepts to sampling of alternatives for mode and destination choice modelling of discretionary activities

Panagiotis Tsoleridis, Charisma F. Choudhury and Stephane Hess

Journal of choice modelling, 2022, vol. 42, issue C

Abstract: Choice models estimated on datasets with large numbers of alternatives present significant challenges leading to rapidly expanding computational cost, as well as potential behavioural realism issues. Sampling of alternatives has been a well-established method for overcoming the computational limitations, mostly applied to models of residential location. Nonetheless, destination choice models of discretionary activities require a different type of analysis, since the choice can be governed by time–space constraints and familiarity regarding the alternatives. Observing the general areas of travel for a period of days using high resolution GPS tracking can provide important information of the individuals’ whereabouts. The present study, taking advantage of such a dataset, proposes a more behaviourally realistic sampling protocol to reduce the choice set utilising the geography-based concepts of activity spaces. Differential importance sampling rates are applied depending on the individual’s activity space and trip chain making the resulting sampled choice set a function of person-specific spatial awareness and mode-specific time–space constraints. The performance of the sampling protocol developed is assessed using a model estimated with the full choice set and compared with random sampling and several other importance sampling protocols. The modelling outputs suggest that random sampling should be used with care, since it can result in highly biased estimates, but with low standard errors, as well. The proposed approach incorporates both time–space constraints and individual spatial awareness and is able to produce less biased estimates, achieve higher sampling stability and statistical efficiency, while also avoiding overfitting.

Keywords: Activity spaces; Time–space constraints; Spatial awareness; Mode-destination choice models; Stratified importance sampling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755534521000695
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eejocm:v:42:y:2022:i:c:s1755534521000695

DOI: 10.1016/j.jocm.2021.100336

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of choice modelling is currently edited by S. Hess and J.M. Rose

More articles in Journal of choice modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().