Energy and Scaling Laws in Human Travel Behaviour

Abstract

We show that energy concepts can contribute to the understanding of human travel behaviour. First, the average travel times for different modes of transportation are inversely proportional to the energy consumption rates measured for the respective physical activities. Second, when daily travel-time distributions by different modes of transport such as walking, cycling, bus or car travel are appropriately scaled, they turn out to have a universal functional relationship. This corresponds to a canonical-like energy distribution with exceptions for short trips, which can be theoretically explained. Altogether, this points to a law of constant average energy consumption by the physical activity of daily travelling. Applying these natural laws could help to improve long-term urban and transport planning.