An empirical analysis of children’s after school out‐of‐home activity‐location engagement patterns and time allocation

Children are an often overlooked and understudied population group, whose travel needs are responsible for a significant number of trips made by a household. In addition, children’s travel and activity participation during the post‐school period have direct implication for adults’ activity‐travel patterns. A better understanding of children’s after school activity‐travel patterns and the linkages between parents and children’s activity‐travel needs is necessary for accurate prediction and forecasting of activity‐based travel demand modeling systems. In this paper, data from the 2002 Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics is used to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the post‐school out‐of‐home activity‐location engagement patterns of children aged 5–17 years. Specifically, this research effort utilizes a multinomial logit model to analyze children’s post‐school location patterns, and employs a multiple discrete–continuous extreme value model to study the propensity of children to participate in, and allocate time to, multiple activity episode purpose‐location types during the after‐school period. The results show that a wide variety of demographic, attitudinal, environmental, and others’ activity‐travel pattern characteristics impact children’s after school activity engagement patterns.