Jinhyun Hong

Relationship between motorized travel and time spent online for nonwork purposes: An examination of location impact

ABSTRACT The effects of information and communications technologies (ICT) on mobility have been investigated for several decades; however, few studies have focused on the amount of time spent using ICT, its implications on travel behavior, and how such relationships may vary with the characteristics of residential location. This study focuses on the Internet use for nonwork purposes and two research questions are examined: Does the amount of time spent on the Internet affect motorized trip generation and motorized travel distance? How do these effects vary according to residential location such as urban, town, and rural areas where the levels of accessibility are different? We find there is a nonlinear relationship between the amount of time spent on the Internet for personal purposes and motorized mobility (i.e., auto and public transit trips), with both very low-end as well as very high-end Internet users having lower levels of motorized mobility, while moderate-intensity users having higher levels of motorized mobility. However, these effects vary according to residential location; for example, people living in urban areas have different levels of motorized mobility according to the amount of time spent online, while no significant impact is identified for people living in rural area.

How does the seasonality influence utilitarian walking behaviour in different urbanization settings in Scotland

The relationship between the built environment and walking has been analyzed for decades. However, the seasonality effects on the relationship between the built environment and walking have not been well examined even though weather is one of the key determinants of walking. Therefore, this study used 2007-8 Scottish Household Survey data collected over two years and estimated the interaction effects between the urbanization setting (i.e., residential locations: urban, town and rural areas) and seasons (i.e., spring, summer, autumn and winter) on walking. Scottish Urban-rural classification scheme is measured based on the population and access to large cities, and used as a key independent variable. The number of walking days for specific purposes such as work or shopping (utilitarian walking) during the past 7 days is used as a dependent variable. The results show that there are significant geographical variations of seasonality effect on utilitarian walking. That is, people living in rural areas are more sensitive to seasonality impacts than those living in urban areas. In addition, we found that the association between urbanization setting and utilitarian walking varies across seasons, indicating that their relationship can be miss-estimated if we ignore the seasonality effects. Therefore, policy makers and practitioners should consider the seasonality effects to evaluate the effectiveness of land use policy correctly. Finally, we still find the significant association between the urbanization setting and utilitarian walking behaviour with the consideration of seasonality effects, supporting the claim of New Urbanism.

How Does Internet Usage Influence Young Travelers’ Choices?:

New technologies have significant effects on travel behavior, attitudes, habits and potentially future travel demand. Effects may be more prominent for Millennials. Little empirical research has investigated these relationships, mainly due to data limitations. This study focuses on the potential influence of using the Internet while traveling on Millennials’ plans for car ownership. We examine two questions: Does using the Internet while traveling influence trip frequencies? and Does it affect Millennials’ intention to purchase a car? Results suggest that Internet use while traveling is positively associated with travel demand and the intention to purchase a car in the near future.