The Use of the Life-Style Concept in Travel Demand Models

Abstract

The concept of life-style is becoming a major differentiating trait between population groups substituting for economic and social classes. This paper describes the utilization of the concept of life-style in the context of travel demand models. Life-style is defined as a pattern of behavior under constrained resources which conforms to the orientations an individual has toward three major ‘life decisions' he or she must make: (a) formation of a household (of any type), (b) participation in the labor force, and (c) orientation toward leisure. A population is classified into life-style groups based on similarity in a multivariate space. Socioeconomic and demographic variables define that space, and emphasis is put on variables which are indicative of emerging new life-styles (for example, the relative contribution of the female spouse to the household income). Cluster analysis is employed to identify the life-style groups. Models for the combinations of choice of mode and destination for shopping trips are estimated for the pooled sample and the life-style segments. Comparisons of these models with the performance of other market segmentation schemes and with the pooled model demonstrate that the life-style groups account for taste variations better than the other schemes.