Activity Systems and Urban Structure: A Working Schema

Abstract

With a focus on households as users of city space, activity systems of urban residents are seen both to shape and to be shaped by the spatial organization of the metropolitan area. Activity choices that compose household routines in the daily and weekly time scale are seen to influence choices at other time scales. Thus a family move at a particular point during the life cycle of a household is seen to be in part a function of the daily routine constrained by income and family size at that point in the life cycle. As the life cycle progresses and income and family size constraints are modified, the activity routine changes; and as a result the mix of accessibilities with respect to the place of residence is modified. The rationale thus focuses on activity routines as the key to defining the desired mix of accessibilities. More particularly, it focuses on the activities composing the routine, viewing them as the outcome of the optimization process in which choice is made on the basis of a suboptimal combination of satisfactions with each activity in the routine selected with respect to security, achievement, status, and other needs appropriate to that stage of the life cycle and income level.

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