Trends in Out-of-Home and At-Home Activities

Abstract

Expectations remain high that information communications technology (ICT) might reduce travel. The rapid evolution of technology, combined with a dearth of longitudinal data, has made it extremely difficult to assess the affects of ICT on travel. Results are compared from two independent but similar household surveys in 1995 and 2003 to examine changes in home ICT use and store travel. Multiple analysis of covariance is used to control for differences in sample characteristics, attitudes, and city type and to examine changes in the frequency of out-of-home and at-home shopping and banking between 1995 and 2003. Results indicate that the year of the survey has a main effect in explaining shopping, but not banking frequencies. Respondents in 2003 shop out of home and at home with greater frequency and bank out of home and at home with less frequency, though the latter finding is not statistically significant. Despite reported increases in at-home activities substituting out-of-home shopping trips, the most likely explanation of the results—examining several behaviors—is that people engage in multiple forms of shopping and banking and do so in the ways that are most convenient. Preferences for store shopping and online security concerns may limit observable changes in past growth and the future potential of ICT to replace physical trips.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Transportation Implications of Telecommuting. U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 1993. isddc.dot.gov/OLPFiles/OST/011836.pdf. Accessed Feb. 18, 2006.

Schrank

and Lomax

. The 2005 Urban Mobility Report. Texas Transportation Institute, College Station, Tex., 2005.

Handy

S. L.

and Yantis

. The Impacts of Telecommunications Technologies on Nonwork Travel Behavior. SWUTC/97/721927-1F. Southwestern Region University Transportation Center, Austin, Tex., 1997. www.uctc.net/papers/233.pdf. Accessed Feb. 16, 2006.

Mokhtarian

P. L.

A Typology of Relationships Between Telecommunications and Transportation. Transportation Center, University of California, Berkeley, June 1990. www.uctc.net/papers/082.pdf. Accessed Feb. 18, 2006.

Gould

and Golob

T. F.

. Will Electronic Home Shopping Reduce Travel? Access: Research at the University of California Transportation Center, Vol. 59, No. 12 1998, pp. 26–31.

Lenz

Will Electronic Commerce Help to Reduce Traffic in Agglomeration Areas? In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1858, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2003, pp. 39–46.

Gould

and Golob

T. F.

. Shopping without Travel or Travel without Shopping: An Investigation of Electronic Home Shopping. Institute of Transportation Studies, Center for Activity Systems Analysis, University of California, Irvine, 1997. UCI-ITS-AS-WP-97.2. repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=itsirvine/casa. Accessed March 6, 2006.

Bhat

C. R.

Sivakumar

and Axhausen

K. W.

. An Analysis of the Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Non-Maintenance Shopping Activities. Institute for Transport Planning and Systems, Zurich, Switzerland, 2002. www.ivt.baum.ethz.ch/vrp/ab97.pdf. Accessed Feb. 16, 2006.

Ferrell

C. E.

Home-Based Teleshoppers and Shopping Travel: Do Teleshoppers Travel Less? In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1894, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2004, pp. 241–248.

10.

Giglierano

and Roldan

. Effects of Online Shopping on Vehicular Traffic. MTI Report 01–20. Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI), San José State University, San Jose, Calif., October 2001. transweb.sjsu.edu/mtiportal/research/publications/documents/01-20.pdf. Accessed Jan. 3, 2007.

11.

Krizek

Handy

and Li

. ICT as a Substitute for Non-Work Travel: A Direct Examination. Working paper. Active Communities/Transportation (ACT) Research Group, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 2004.

12.

Krizek

K. J.

and Handy

S. L.

. Spatial Attributes and Patterns of Use in Household-Related Information and Communications Technology Activity. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1926, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2005, pp. 252–259.

13.

Cao

and Mokhtarian

P. L.

. The Intended and Actual Adoption of Online Purchasing: A Brief Review of Recent Literature. UCD-ITS-RR-05–07. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, 2005.

14.

Day

J. C.

Janus

and Davis

. Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2003. U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, D.C., October 2005. www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/p23-208.pdf. Accessed Feb. 16, 2006.

15.

A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age. U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration and National Telecommunications & Information Administration, Washington, D.C., September 2004. www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/anol/NationOnlineBroadband04.htm. Accessed Feb. 22, 2006.

16.

Latest Trends: Usage Over Time. Pew Internet & American Life Project, Washington, D.C., 2005. www.pewinternet.org/trends.asp. Accessed Jan. 30, 2006.

17.

Lebo

The Digital Future Report. Surveying the Digital Future: Year Four—Ten Years, Ten Trends. USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Sept. 2004. www.digitalcenter.org/downloads/DigitalFutureReport-Year4-2004.pdf. Accessed Feb. 20, 2006.

18.

Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, 2006. U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, D.C. www.census.gov/mrts/www/ecomm.html. Accessed Feb. 17, 2006.

19.

e-Data B2C: U.S. E-Commerce Growing Faster than Total Retail Spending, According to eMarketer. ITAA E-Letter, May 2005. www.itaa.org/isec/pubs/e20055-11.pdf. Accessed Feb. 15, 2006.

20.

Online Banking Gaining Worldwide Momentum. Global Market Insite, Inc., 2005. www.gmimr.com/gmipoll/press_room_wppk_pr_10192005.phtml. Accessed Feb. 9, 2006.

21.

Hayashi

Sullivan

and Weiner

S. E.

. A Guide to the ATM and Debit Card Industry. Payments System Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Mo., 2003. www.kc.frb.org/FRFS/ATMpaper.pdf. Accessed March 20, 2006.

22.

Garson

G. D.

GLM MANOVA and MANCOVA. Statnotes: Topics in Multivariate Analysis. www2.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/pa765/statnote.htm. Accessed March 11, 2007.

23.

Consumer Price Indexes. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007. www.bls.gov/cpi/. Accessed Jan. 15, 2007.