Travel-based multitasking: review of the role of digital activities and connectivity

Abstract

Travel-based multitasking, also referred to as travel time use, is now a well-established concept, whose existence is supported by the technological trajectories, with mobile information and communication technologies (ICT) and vehicle automation working together to allow travel time to be more productive and enjoyable. Despite existence of reviews of travel-time multitasking studies, the systematic overview of the role digital activities, i.e. those that necessarily require modern ICT equipment to participate, has been limited, often wrapped under the umbrella term 'use of ICT', potentially obscuring their complexity and sophistication. Similarly, the role of connectivity and its attributes, e.g. speed (bandwidth), reliability, price, ease of use, data allowance or security, deserves a more systematic overview given its key role in enabling digital online activities and hence the travel-based multitasking options. This paper provides a review of 77 empirical travel-based multitasking-studies that explored the role of digital activities or connectivity. In particular, the review discusses the existing typologies of digital activities, dividing them into hardware-centric, function-centric or a combination of both (mixed). Subsequently, key contributions are discussed with respect to treatment of digital activities and connectivity and its attributes. Based on the review, it is possible to observe that the existing studies have looked only at a handful of rather restricted online activities that do not sufficiently capture the sophistication with which individuals interact with the virtual world nowadays. Furthermore, the role of connectivity, although deeply embedded in the 'C' of the 'ICT' concept, has not been looked at or modelled in any detail in studies related to travel time use or its quality. This existing shortcoming might have resulted in the insufficient understanding of the mechanisms driving travel time use, the associated experience indicators of customer satisfaction, productivity or the consequences for relative attractiveness of transport modes. All of these considerations remain, however, crucial for designing, appraising and operating transport infrastructure and services that are able to take the advantage of lifestyle digitisation to meet the increasing customer needs while also delivering broader economic, social benefits and possibly also environmental benefits.

Participation in online activities while travelling: an application of the MDCEV model in the context of rail travel

“…To the best of our knowledge, however, no study has made use of the MDCEV approach to model travel time allocation between online activities. Systematic reviews of such studies are available from Keseru and Macharis (2018) and Pawlak (2020). As for the link between travel-based multitasking and value of travel time, it is worth observing that a number of studies such as Malokin et al (2019) have postulated that the activities undertaken while travelling can have impact on mode choice decisions.…”

“…Overall, this implies that advancing analyses of travel-based multitasking, including those concerning the role of online activities, may yield insights into a set of drivers of travel satisfaction and productivity. Those indicators may in turn affect modal choices, themselves among the most important behaviours in transport planning and policy-making (Pawlak 2020). In particular, policies seeking to facilitate the use of travel time in the context of particular modes, may make such modes more competitive against others.…”

“…and the ever-increasing quality of those media, such as High Definition (HD) or 4 K video. These trends point towards a need to better understand and forecast online activity during travel, acknowledging that high-speed and reliable connectivity tends to be more challenging than for fixed locations (Pawlak 2020).…”

“…The explicit modelling of travel time use has emerged only in the past 15 years, as shown in recent systematic reviews on the topic (Keseru and Macharis 2018;Pawlak 2020). A notable exception was the work by Hensher (1977) in the context of business air travellers.…”

“…The resurgence of interest in the productive use of travel time has coincided with the proliferation of mobile ICT (Lyons and Urry 2005), as shown in the recent systematic reviews (Keseru and Macharis 2018;Pawlak 2020). This is in spite of the fact that travellers (not necessarily private vehicle drivers) have always spent their journeys not being idle.…”