A model of household task allocation and time use

Most existing activity-based models of transport demand are based on individual activity-travel choice. Although it has been realized that activities in multiple person households need to be coordinated and sometimes synchronized in time and space, there is still a lack of household-level models of activity-travel demand. Recently, several potentially productive areas of time use research have been identified, including the allocation of tasks, resources and possessions to household members, and joint activity engagement by household members. This paper reports on the development of a household task allocation and time use model based on a multi-linear group utility function. Using activity-travel diary data, collected in the South Rotterdam Region, the Netherlands, a model of household task allocation and time use, incorporating the influence of travel time, was estimated. The model also allows quantifying the relative influence of the household members. The results indicate that, on weekdays, for nearly half of the households the husband mostly influences task allocation and time use, for one-fifth of the households it is the wife and the remaining households show an equal relative influence for the husband and wife.