Measurement of intention to travel: Considering the effect of telecommunications on trips

Mobility, one of the key concepts to evaluate the effect of a transportation policy such as TDM and mobility management as well as to analyze the problems such as social exclusion, must be measured by how much of an intention to make a trip can be realized, not merely by how many trips are available. The advent of new communication tools such as the Internet and mobile phones has allowed one to accomplish certain tasks that previously required a trip. This new situation has brought up a discussion over the necessity to incorporate telecommunications as an aspect of mobility. Aware of such discussions, we analyzed the relationship between the number of trips and telecommunications based on the data we collected on trips, telecommunications, and activities, and found some significant correlations. Our study which used an ordered regression model found several significant relationships between the individual attributes and the number of trips/telecommunications. We formulated a model which assumes the latent factors among the trips and telecommunications. In addition, we found that the latent factors construable as intentions to trips and telecommunications could be measured better by e-mails than by trips. These results indicate that measuring mobility requires the inclusion of information about telecommunications.