Time allocation in urban and transport settings: an international, inter-urban perspective q Harry Timmermans a, * , Peter van der Waerden a , Mario Alves b , John Polak b , Scott Ellis c , Andrew S. Harvey c , Shigeyuki Kurose d , Rianne Zandee e a UrbanPlanningandResearch,UrbanPlanningGroup,EindhovenUniversityofTechnology,DenDolech2,Postbus513,Mainbuilding5.25,5600MB Eindhoven,TheNetherlands b ImperialCollege,London,UK c SaintMary'sUniversity,Halifax,Canada d FukuokaUniversity,Japan e ProjectBureauIntegraleVervoerenVervoerStudies,ResearchUnitforIntegratedTransportStudies,EindhovenUniversityofTechnology, Eindhoven,TheNetherlands Abstract This paper reports the ®ndings of analyses, conducted to identify regularities and differences underlying various aspects of activity±travel patterns across a set of cities, regions in the world. Activity±travel patterns, derived from activity diary data collected in Portland USA), Midlands UK), Fukuoka Japan), Canadian metropolitan areas, and the South-Rotterdam region The Netherlands) are compared. The results indicate that although idiosyncratic differences exist between the city regions, there is also considerable evidence of similarities between the city regions. q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Activity; Time; Shopping behaviour 1. Introduction The recent interest in activity-based analysis in transpor- tation research has also stimulated the analysis of time use characteristics. Researchers have realised that travel patterns are the result of a complex interplay between the urban and transportation setting, the institutional context, and people's needs and desires to become engaged in activi- ties. Activity engagement is synonymous with time use. Given personal and household needs and desires, as re¯ected in particular lifestyles, individuals have to decide how to allocate their time among mandatory and discretion- ary activities. The urban and transport settings provide the opportunities that individuals face but also potentially restrict the action space of individuals. The in¯uence of each of these factors will depend on the speci®c situation. If people's resources do not allow them to use a wider portion of their spatial environment, the constraints set by their environment will have a dramatic impact on their activity±travel patterns. If people's immediate spatial and transportation environment does not supply them with ample opportunities, they either need to decide not to become engaged in particular activities, reduce engagement or conduct these activities elsewhere. The latter will lead to more mobility and/or longer travel distances. On the other hand, if people's resources money, time, etc.) are suf®cient, one might expect the impact of the urban and transportation setting to be less as people organise their daily activities to more optimally realise their needs and wants. A rapidly growing literature in transportation research has examined various aspects of time allocation and activity engagement. For example, Ma and Goulias 1999), applied Poisson-regression models to predict the frequency of subsistence, maintenance, and out-of-home leisure activi- ties. They found that the frequency of activity engagement was correlated with many personal and household charac- teristics and some spatial attributes, although the latter were less in¯uential than person and household characteristics. Similarly, Lu and Pas 1999) using structural equation modelling found that both out-of-home and in-home activi- ties were signi®cantly related to socio-demographics, age, gender, employment status and number of children being most in¯uential. Lawson 1999) also concluded that the probability of conducting an out-of-home activity is a Transport Policy 9 2002) 79±93 PERGAMON 0967-070X/02/$ - see front matter q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0967-070X02)00003-3 www.elsevier.com/locate/tranpol q This paper is based on the research project on Space±Time Consump- tion on the Move, conducted for `Project Bureau Integrale Vervoer en Vervoer Studies'/Research Unit for Integrated Transport Studies. * Corresponding author. Tel.: 131-40-247-3315; fax: 131-40-247-5882. E-mailaddress: m.v.d.sande.v.kasteren@bwk.tue.nl H. Timmermans).