Work-Related Trip Patterns in Household and Commercial Travel Surveys

This paper addresses the question of which work-related trip patterns are included in household travel surveys and commercial travel surveys respectively and if there are certain patterns that are distinctly underrepresented in either one. This study is structured as a comparison between data from a household travel survey and data from a survey conducted specifically for commercial activities. Both surveys were conducted in Germany and within close temporal proximity. We applied cluster analysis to identify differences in the data and identify work-related travel patterns. The results shows that work-related travel patterns are quite complex. While some patterns are covered in both surveys, especially those travel patterns of mobile workers are not represented well in the household travel survey. Furthermore, our analysis shows that not all commercial trips are generated by motorized vehicles and a considerable share of work-related trips is conducted with public transport or active modes which are not covered by the commercial travel survey. The results implicate that researchers and transport planners creating travel demand models need to increase attention to work-related travel behavior and acknowledge that - depending on the area of study - traditional household travel surveys may not provide a complete sample of the population but simply adding commercial trips from commercial travel demand models also does not provide a complete picture of work-related travel.