Identifying activities and trips with GPS data

This study designs a process for identifying trips and activities based on global positioning system (GPS) survey data. The proposed identification process is composed of four steps, namely determining status segments, detecting activities, identifying trips, and recognising short-time activities. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm shows a high level of identification accuracy compared with the travel diaries reported in the paper-form travel survey. By providing the identification method of the short-time activities, this study resolves the problem of overlooking short-time activities in conventional travel surveys and increases the accuracy of trip detection. This work also facilitates the study of the spatial and temporal distributions of short-time activities related to travel behaviours such as temporary parking. By proposing a method for identifying trips and activities from GPS data, the findings provide a research scheme for detecting other travel information based on GPS data such as travel mode and trip purpose, reasonable decisions for urban transportation planning and management.