Highlights ► ICT is substituting and complementing travel in a way socio-demographics do not capture. ► Social Network Analysis (SNA) allows capturing social determinants that affect travel. ► The e-communication to physical travel ratio can be calculated using SNA. ► Clustering resulting from this ratio can be used to classify people into travel behavior profiles. ► Decision makers can find this methodology relevant in designing their travel and ICT strategies in a novel way.
Abstract The new era of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) enables people to communicate and interact with each other in new and different manners, changing the way they conduct their daily lives. This change inevitably has significant implications for physical travel in the age of electronic communication (e-communication). This paper aims to provide greater insight into people’s travel behavior based on their e-Communication to Travel balance (C/T balance). This balance represents the ratio between an individual’s e-communication and physical travel. The analysis studies the relevance of social ties in Ahmedabad, India, as a source of explanation of social activity, thus travel, undertaken by individuals. It is hypothesized that the C/T balance emerges from an individual’s social network characteristics. The ability of an individual to engage in social activities not only depends on the individual’s socioeconomic and lifestyle attributes, but also on the ‘modality’ of such interactions (e.g. physical travel or e-communication). The different modalities create different social networks. Each network represents a particular flow of potential activity travel generated by interaction between the individuals. These networks have been clustered on the basis of their C/T balance to get distinct people’s profiles that can be used to target transport and ICT policies better.
Using Social Network Analysis to profile people based on their e-communication and travel balance
Journal of Transport Geography ; 24 ; 111-122
2011-01-01
12 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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