Stability and Flexibility in Commuting Behavior – Analyses of Mode Choice Patterns in Germany

Daily travel behavior varies within one week: Individuals perform different activities and may
use different modes. Considering the working population in Germany, 39% of their trips are
work-related. Since these trips cover large parts of daily travel behavior, decisions on commuting
mode choice and variation influence the transportation system in general; they are relevant to
assess infrastructure needs and design mobility management concepts. Based on the German
Mobility Panel, a one week national household travel survey, we analyzed whether and how
commuting mode choice patterns vary on the individual level and which factors influence this
variation. Since the occurrence of additional activities on the way from home to work and back
may influence individual mode choice, we did not consider working trips only but the whole
commuting tour. To consider various factors of stability and flexibility in commuting behavior,
we used a multinomial logistic regression model. Our analyses show that 58% of the commuters
integrate additional activities at least once a week and 27% use several different modes for
commuting within the week. ... mehrOur logistic regression results indicate that commuting mode choice
and mode variation is determined by several factors like socio-demographics, commuting tour
characteristics, the availability of cars and transit passes and transportation system based factors
(e.g. parking pressure). Our results may help employers to reflect flexibility of the employees by
providing an infrastructure that enables multimodal behavior. Influencing factors for commuting
mode choice may be a valuable help to forecast and steer demands, e.g. by promoting transit
passes for employees.