Communication and Travel Behavior: Two Facets of Human Activity Patterns

Abstract

Communication and travel behaviour are two facets of a general behaviour of human interaction that leads to particular patterns in the use of time and geographical space. So far, a conceptualisation and empirical analysis of how ICT generally change the way people perform their activities is missing. The present article starts with the basic idea that one of the major achievements of recent technological developments, both in transport and particularly in communications, is people’s greater spatial and temporal flexibility. Using the data of the first wave of the ‘DLR ICT and Mobility Panel’, the present paper explores the general relationship of communication and mobility behaviour. Although the share of young, well-educated persons is above average within the group of highly communicative and mobile persons, the data show that within all age groups a high number of trips correlates with a high ICT use. Generally, a distinction of ICT devices should be made as the effect of the particular media can be different. In exploring the questions of what factors influence travel demand and the nature of the role played by ICT use in this context, the expectation is confirmed that young and employed men are more likely to have a high travel demand. However, the influence is considerably less strong than generally assumed. Instead, the use of ICT, and in particular the mobile phone, turned out to be the strongest influencing factor in the regression model presented in the paper. The problem that still exists in this research area is that evidence concerning correlations on a statistical level can be provided, but there is still a paucity of appropriate data to verify causal relationships. These kinds of questions can only be answered by additional qualitative studies and a second wave of the present panel study that allows an inter-temporal and intra-personal comparison of the respondent’s behaviour.