A Behavioral Analysis Of Shopping Trip Chaining In United States

Abstract

This thesis studies travelers' tendency to chain a shopping trip into daily travel tour. A comprehensive analysis of personal shopping trip-chaining probability and its relation to sociodemographic characteristics, household status and land use information is conducted both nationally and area wide in United States. Using the 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data, a binary logit model is chosen to analyze the probability of trip chaining, and a negative binomial regression model is used to model individuals daily shopping frequency. Results show that gender, household life cycle, family income, driver status, rural living environment and weekend have significant impact on people's chaining propensity, while influences of age, education, and worker status is insignificant. The same studying method and models are applied to all US census divisions as well. Area behavior, as expected, is consistent with national behavior.