Social influences on household location, mobility and activity choice in integrated micro‐simulation models

Agent‐based approaches to simulating long‐term location and mobility decisions and short‐term activity and travel decisions of households and individuals are receiving increasing attention in land‐use and transportation interaction (LUTI) models to predict land‐use changes and travel behaviour in mutual interaction. Social interactions between households and between individuals potentially have an influence on a wide range of the long‐term and short‐term choices involved in these systems. In this paper we identify the areas in which social interactions play a role and address the question how these influences can be modelled in the context of agent‐based LUTI models. We distinguish impacts on activity participation (joint activity participation, support‐and‐help activities) and impacts on decision making (information exchange, social adaptation of preferences and aspirations) as the two main areas of social influence. A prototype of a LUTI model is proposed that accounts for impacts of the social network on longer‐term mobility decision making through information exchange and social adaptation of preferences and aspirations. The model is demonstrated in a numerical simulation.