The multiplicity of self-selection: What do travel attitudes influence first,residential location or work place?

Residential self-selection has been widely considered as an important issue in quantifying the impacts of the residential built environment on travel behavior and much empirical evidence regarding the nature and magnitude of the self-selection effect has been reported. Nevertheless, people may be based on travel attitudes/needs to self-select not only residential location, but also work place, car ownership, etc. In other words, the impacts of long-term decisions other than residential location choices (e.g., decisions on work place, car ownership, etc.) on travel behavior may also be biased by the self-selection effect. However, self-selection concerning these long-term decisions has not been explored much in the travel behavior literature. The role of residential self-selection would not be properly evaluated if self-selections concerning other long-term decisions were not considered because they are often related. This paper addresses this research gap in the travel behavior literature by exploring the multiplicity of travel-based self-selection. We jointly examine the possible self-selections concerning residential location, workplace, commuting distance and car ownership in an integrated framework, taking into consideration the interrelationships among these decisions. Data are derived from an activity-travel diary survey conducted in 2016 in Beijing, China. We classify the respondents into two groups based on the choice order of their current residential and work locations and conduct a comparative analysis using structural equation models. It is found that self-selection exists in all long-term choices examined in the study. The choices of residential location and work place are found to be mutually dependent. Consequently, both choices have indirect impacts on travel behavior through the other choice.     

Residential self-selection and travel behaviour: What are the effects of attitudes,reasons for location choice and the built environment?

In studies of the effect of built environment on travel behaviour, residential self-selection is an increasingly important issue. Self-selection implies that households locate in places that provide them with conducive conditions for their preferred way of travelling. In these studies, it is assumed that attitudes toward different travel modes are an important factor in location choice, and that households are unconstrained in choosing their preferred residential location. This paper challenges these assumptions, by distinguishing between the more passive travel attitude and travel considerations as a deliberate reason to locate in a certain place. Based on a survey among 355 recently relocated households in Dutch TOD locations, we find that the association between travel attitude and residential environment is weak, and that the association between travel attitude and travel as a factor in location choice is moderate at best. Multivariate models show that both travel attitude and travel being a reason for location choice influence travel mode use, suggesting that travel attitude is insufficient to fully reflect self-selection processes. In comparison to other travel modes, train travel is most influenced by the fact whether residents deliberately chose to live in an environment conducive to using this mode.     

Endogenous treatment of residential location choices in transport and land use models: Introducing the MetroScan framework

Within a random utility maximisation modelling framework, the paper develops a residential location choice model as part of an integrated transport and land use modelling system, called MetroScan – a quick scanning tool to evaluate transport and land use initiatives, including benefit-cost analysis and economic impact analysis. We describe how the developed model is integrated, as an empirically calibrated module, into the behaviourally richer transport and land use modelling system of MetroScan for practical application. A full application of MetroScan modelling system to Sydney West Metro link recently proposed by the New South Wales government is presented as a case study. The results demonstrate how the residential location choice model works with other inter-connected models, such as work and non-work location choices, dwelling tenure and dwelling type, and vehicle fleet size choice embedded in the modelling system, in simulating the impact of transport and housing development on household choices of residential location.     

A two-stage residential location and transport mode choice model with exposure to traffic-induced air pollution

Air pollution is an increasing concern to urban residents. In response, residents are beginning to adapt their travel behaviour and to consider local air quality when choosing a home. We study implications of such behaviour for the morphology of cities and population exposure to traffic-induced air pollution. To do so, we propose a spatially explicit and integrated residential location and transport mode choice model for a city with traffic-induced air pollution. Intra-urban spatial patterns of population densities, transport mode choices, and resulting population exposure are analysed for urban settings of varying levels of health concern and air pollution information available to residents. Numerical analysis of the feedback between residential location choice and transport mode choice, and between residents' choices and the subsequent potential impact on their own health suggests that increased availability of information on spatially variable traffic-induced health concerns shifts population towards suburban areas with availability of public transport. Thus, health benefits result from reduced population densities close to urban centres in this context. To mitigate population exposure, our work highlights the need for spatially explicit information on peoples' air pollution concerns and, on this basis, spatially differentiated integrated land use and transport measures.     

The influence of socioeconomic characteristics,land use and travel time considerations on mode choice for medium- and longer-distance trips

This paper contributes to the limited number of investigations into the influence of the spatial configuration of land use and transport systems on mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel (defined here as home-based trips of 50 km and over) in the Netherlands. We have employed data from the 1998 Netherlands National Travel Survey to address the question as to how socioeconomic factors, land use attributes, and travel time affect mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel, and how their role varies across trip purposes: commuting, business, and leisure. The empirical analysis indicates that land use attributes and travel time considerations are important in explaining the variation in mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel when controlling for the socioeconomic characteristics of travellers.     

Spatial and socio-demographic determinants of South East Queensland students’ school cycling

The low prevalence of Australian students’ utilitarian school cycling could be attributed to the varied and context specific demographic, socio-economic and spatial school travel mode choice determinants. Travel distance is universally important for school cycling and is reliant amongst related home and school spatial proximity factors on a student’s choice of schools. This paper, primarily based on school students’ travel data extracted from the 2009 South East Queensland Household Travel Survey (SEQHTS), examines comparative school cycling travel patterns, school catchment choices and the significant analytical determinants of cycling mode choices from within an urban regional Australian context. Students’ choice of a school external to that located within their designated State school catchment zone was associated with household attributes of parent/guardian employment location, number of income earners and ownership of private vehicles coupled with State school and catchment attributes. Noteworthy variations in school travel distances and modal splits were allied with school catchment choices. Adolescent male students from two parent households owning fewer than two cars and more than two bicycles, with parents/guardians commuting using non-motorised travel modes and resident in Census Collection Districts with conducive cycling environments, contributed largely to the one-way bi-directional primary and secondary school cycling mode shares. This prevalent student cyclist profile indicates the need for enhancements in student school cycling participation, through policies addressing both the spatial (built) and social environment which impact students’ personal and traffic safety coupled with utilitarian cycling image enhancements. Concerted efforts to bolster cycling amongst student segments with current low cycling participation inclusive of females, students from single parent households and those with adequate access to private motorised travel modes may be necessary to further enhance school cycling mode shares. The paper makes a case for individualised targeted travel interventions informed by segregated mode choice determinant analysis for respective primary and secondary school types and directions of school travel.     

The built environment,travel attitude,and travel behavior: Residential self-selection or residential determination?

In examining the impacts of the built environment on travel behavior, studies focused on residential self-selection mostly assume that people self-select residential built environment based on their travel preferences. However, the residential self-selection hypothesis is challenged for a number of reasons including the arguments that that at least in some societies a large percentage of people do not have the privilege to self-select their residence and the built environment may have a significant influence on a person's travel attitude. To shed some light on this debate, this paper makes use of data from a household activity-diary survey conducted in Beijing, China, in 2011–2012 to examine both the hypothesis of residential self-selection and that of residential environment determination. We adopt the natural experimental approach and divide the sample into two groups based on whether or not the respondents had much freedom in regard to choosing where to live: one with the possibility of self-selection and the other one without this possibility. We found reciprocal influences between residential built environment and travel attitude/preference for the first group and influence of residential built environment on travel preferences for the second group. We argue that the complex relationships between the built environment, travel attitude, and travel behavior are featured by both residential self-selection and residential determination. Failing to acknowledge the effects of the built environment on travel attitude may lead to the overestimation of the influence of residential self-selection on the link between the built environment and travel behavior and underestimation of the influence of the built environment on travel behavior.     

A dynamic hazard-based system of equations of vehicle ownership with endogenous long-term decision factors incorporating group decision making

The transportation system affects all aspects of our daily lives including relatively long-term decisions on work and home location choice and automobile ownership decisions. The interdependency existing among these three decisions jointly influences household mobility and overall travel patterns. Therefore, a dynamic modeling framework that can account for the effects of interdependencies between vehicle transaction behavior and residential and job location choices is highly desirable. These decisions are made in the household level while individuals’ decisions influence the overall outcome; therefore, it is also important to incorporate a group decision making process within such modeling frameworks.This study introduces a dynamic model for vehicle ownership, residential mobility, and employment relocation timing decisions. These decisions are modeled at the individual level and then sequentially aggregated to the household level if it is required. A hazard-based system of equations is formulated and applied in which work location and residential location changes are included as endogenous variables in the vehicle transaction model while other important factors such as land-use and built environment variables, household dynamics, and individuals’ socio-demographics are also considered.     

Using metro smart card data to model location choice of after-work activities: An application to Shanghai

A location choice model explains how travellers choose their trip destinations especially for those activities which are flexible in space and time. The model is usually estimated using travel survey data; however, little is known about how to use smart card data (SCD) for this purpose in a public transport network. Our study extracted trip information from SCD to model location choice of after-work activities. We newly defined the metrics of travel impedance in this case. Moreover, since socio-demographic information is missing in such anonymous data, we used observable proxy indicators, including commuting distance and the characteristics of one's home and workplace stations, to capture some interpersonal heterogeneity. Such heterogeneity is expected to distinguish the population and better explain the difference of their location choice behaviour. The approach was applied to metro travellers in the city of Shanghai, China. As a result, the model performs well in explaining the choices. Our new metrics of travel impedance to access an after-work activity result in a better model fit than the existing metrics and add additional interpretability to the results. Moreover, the proxy variables distinguishing the population seem to influence the choice behaviour and thus improve the model performance.     

Heterogeneous effects of neighborhood type on commute mode choice: An exploration of residential dissonance in the Twin Cities

Many studies have measured residential and travel preferences to address residential self-selection and they often focused on the average or independent effect of the built environment on travel behavior. However, individuals' behavioral responses to built environment interventions may vary by their different tastes. Using the 2011 data from the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area, this study examines the influences of neighborhood type, travel attitudes, and their interaction terms on commute mode choice. The interactions between neighborhood type and travel attitudes have no significant impact on driving commute frequency whereas the effects of neighborhood type on the propensity for transit commute differ by transit preference. Specifically, urban consonants (including those in LRT neighborhoods) have the highest propensity for transit commute, followed by suburban dissonants, urban dissonants, and then suburban consonants. Therefore, individuals' heterogeneous responses to built environment elements should be taken into account in future research and in the design of land use and transportation policies aiming to shape urban travel.     

The social aspect of residential location choice: on the trade-off between proximity to social contacts and commuting

Commuting has been found to be one of the least enjoyable activities. As it is a consequence of the choice of home and work location, the question arises as to how its disutility is compensated. Urban location theory suggests a compensation in the housing or the labor market. While this provides part of the explanation, individuals' personal networks may provide additional insights.Data from a social network survey were used to investigate proximity to social contacts as a factor in residential location choice.The results indicated that proximity to social contacts was an important factor and that it was traded off against commute time. The notion that the disutility of commuting is not compensated for may be a consequence of ignoring the effect of personal networks.The results contribute to the understanding of residential location choice and have implications for urban planning and policies that seek to reduce commuting.     

An exploratory analysis of relationships between socioeconomic,land use,activity participation variables and travel patterns

This paper aims to find relations between the socioeconomic characteristics, activity participation, land use patterns and travel behavior of the residents in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area (SPMA) by using Exploratory Multivariate Data Analysis (EMDA) techniques. The variables influencing travel pattern choices are investigated using: (a) Cluster Analysis (CA), grouping and characterizing the Traffic Zones (TZ), proposing the independent variable called Origin Cluster and, (b) Decision Tree (DT) to find a priori unknown relations among socioeconomic characteristics, land use attributes of the origin TZ and destination choices. The analysis was based on the origin–destination home-interview survey carried out in SPMA in 1997. The DT application revealed the variables of greatest influence on the travel pattern choice. The most important independent variable considered by DT is car ownership, followed by the Use of Transportation “credits” for Transit tariff, and, finally, activity participation variables and Origin Cluster. With these results, it was possible to analyze the influence of a family income, car ownership, position of the individual in the family, use of transportation “credits” for transit tariff (mainly for travel mode sequence choice), activities participation (activity sequence choice) and Origin Cluster (destination/travel distance choice).     

Residential location and daily travel distances: the influence of trip purpose

This paper investigates the extent to which residential location influences daily distance travelled if travel purposes are differentiated. Statistical multilevel models are applied to Swedish National Travel Survey data from 2005–2006. Travel purposes are categorized by considering time–spatial constraints and hypothesized factors of personal freedom of choice. Results indicate that the influence of residential location on daily distance travelled is highly conditional on trip purpose in a nationwide Swedish context. Although statistically significant proportions of the variation in daily distance travelled to work, on service errands, and on weekdays were dependent on residential location, daily travel distances for leisure activities and on weekends varied greatly among people living in the same neighbourhood. From a policy perspective, these results suggest that measures intended to alter the built environment to reduce the volume of travel will be most efficient as regards work trips, while trips taken during free time are unlikely to be much affected. In addition, the multilevel models applied reveal several important interactions between the variation in travel distances across residential locations and individual characteristics of which researchers should be aware, especially when examining service trips.     

Examining the impacts of the Great Recession on the commuting dynamics and jobs-housing balance of public and private sector workers

Research examining commuting-related phenomena remains a key area of geographical research. And although substantial research has attempted to explore the relationships between transportation and land use, little is known about how the impacts of major economic changes such as the Great Recession would affect related commuting dynamics. In addition, commuting studies examining the plight of workers in private versus the public sectors are also virtually non-existent, though the two-groups' commuting dynamics would potentially be affected very differently by the Great Recession. This study contributes to a better understanding of commuting and jobs-housing balance during the Great Recession. We employ metrics from the excess commuting and jobs-housing balance literature in an effort to examine the commuting dynamics of private and public sector workers, with a focus on the time period around the Great Recession. Our analysis is conducted for the Atlanta, GA Metropolitan area. Findings of the study are that private workers experienced better jobs-housing balance over the study period, but they commute longer and more inefficiently when compared with public workers. While the Great Recession worsened both groups' commuting situation, the effect was more significant for public workers in terms of increasing their travel burdens. Since the public sector response to the Great Recession was delayed, policy implications suggest monitoring employment trends during and after economic shocks and recognizing the transportation disadvantages public sector workers may face in future crises. Keywords: excess commuting, jobs-housing balance, the Great Recession, private and public employment, spatial optimization.     

Insights into the fairness of cordon pricing based on origin–destination data

Origin–destination data are used to assess the vertical equity effects of a hypothetical road pricing zone in Canada's largest city. The assessment is based on the proportion of morning commuters affected by cordon pricing by virtue of residential location, trip destination, and travel mode. The overall findings for Toronto, Canada show that people with full-time employment and also those from higher income neighborhoods would be most affected by downtown road pricing; and this holds true when the population is broken out by gender, age group, household size and occupational class. The analysis also highlights that professionals, those who live in one- and two-person households, and those who are aged 65 and older would be disproportionately affected; those who work in manufacturing would be less affected. The equity effects of road pricing arise out of the commuting patterns of different sub-populations.     

Can information promote transportation-friendly location decisions? A simulation experiment

Where people live, work, shop, and recreate fundamentally determines their local travel options. Yet, information problems such as the cost of conducting comprehensive searches and cognitive load have been shown to limit decision-making. In the context of residential decision-making, information problems are likely to influence which locations get chosen. This study examines whether providing people seeking a rental home with map-based information about the transit and pedestrian accessibility of the available units might influence their residential location choices. More specifically, would some people make use of this information to select more accessible residences than they would have otherwise chosen?This proposition was tested through an experimental research design in a laboratory setting. Graduate student participants were asked to select their top choices of where to live after reviewing a database of residential properties custom-designed for this study. In order to assess the influence of accessibility information, we divided participants randomly into control and experimental groups, with the former receiving baseline information currently available and the latter receiving map-based supplemental property information on multi-modal accessibility to desirable destinations.The study results suggest that providing multi-modal accessibility information to people who are relocating will enhance the attractiveness of locations that support multiple travel modes. If this is true for broader populations, then planners and policy makers may be able to increase use of non-auto modes by providing multi-modal transportation information to people at the time when they are looking for a new residence.     

A spatial portfolio theory of household location choice

Classical residential location choice models were constructed as uncertainty-free. Using the expected utility theorem, urban researchers have dealt with different types of uncertainties, such as uncertain income, uncertain housing price and uncertain transportation cost, etc. This paper, however, considers uncertain traveling frequencies in two-workplace setting, a novel theory on the emergence of a new centre between two existing CBDs can then be formulated. It can be regarded as a spatial portfolio theory as the theory predicts that household location choice would strike a balance between commuting cost savings (return) and variance of the savings (risk). Empirical evidence on the housing transaction price gradient changes in Hong Kong supports the theory.     

Travelling fair: Targeting equitable transit by understanding job location,sectorial concentration,and transit use among low-wage workers

Low-wage workers have a pressing need for adequate and affordable transportation services. However, the growing polycentricity of North American metropolises means transit providers face the difficult task of serving ever more dispersed employment centers. Deciding where limited project resources would provide the most benefit for disadvantaged populations should be a concern for transit planners and elected officials. The purpose of this research is to determine where low-wage employment zones are, where different types of low-wage jobs concentrate, and determine if job type and location have an effect on transit ridership for low-wage workers. We use a previously proposed method to identify low-wage employment zones in the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area, Canada and measure job type concentration using a gravity approach. We then test to see if job type concentration and employment centres relate to ridership, while controlling for other factors that influence mode share. Our results indicate significant differences in transit use for different occupations exist. These results can help guide more transit investment and research by tackling specific occupation's travel needs.     

Commuting patterns of employees in the Information Technology and traditional manufacturing sectors of Bangalore, India

Rapid growth of the Information Technology (IT) sector in Bangalore, India, has transformed the city’s urban-industrial landscape since the liberalization of India's economy in 1991. The city's IT sector is closely integrated with a global system of production and caters largely to a global clientele. Apart from the impact of these developments on urban form, there are indications that they are causing uneven growth patterns and socio-economic polarization, which has resulted in different travel patterns in the work force. This paper compares the commuting patterns of employees in two types of firms, an IT multinational corporation and a traditional public-sector-unit (PSU), using data from a survey. Regression models show that there is a significant increase in travel cost as income rises for a sample of employees of the IT sector, even though travel distance is not influenced by income. The reverse holds true for a sample of employees of the PSU—rising income significantly increases distance though income does not affect travel cost. Behavioral choice models also show that with increasing income IT employees are more likely to choose two-wheelers and cars for commuting while PSU employees are more likely to choose public buses or walk to work. The paper suggests that Bangalore's services-oriented IT economy is magnifying differences in work commuting patterns relative to those in the traditional manufacturing economy. The IT economy is also transforming travel behavior in terms of work travel mode choices among socio-economic groups.     

Activity-travel behaviour of non-workers belonging to different income group households in Bangalore,India

Non-workers – homemakers, unemployed individuals and the retired – generally have more discretionary time than workers do, and hence, their travel behaviour and response to infrastructure improvements and travel demand management measures are different from that of workers. However, much remains unknown about activity-travel behaviour of non-workers in developing countries. Can we expect similarity between activity participation and travel behaviour of non-workers in different income group households in developing countries? How do the socio-demographic settings in India, for e.g., traditional gender roles and multi-member households, and land use context influence the activity-travel choices of non-workers in different income group households? The present study attempts to answer these questions by presenting a comparative analysis of activity-travel behaviour of non-workers in low-, medium-, and high-income households in Bangalore city, India. Using a primary activity-travel survey data, the study mainly compares the activity-travel behaviour of the three income-groups with respect to various activity-travel indicators. In addition, statistical models of daily out-of-home time allocation, trip chaining, and mode choice behaviour are estimated separately for the three groups to investigate the potential sensitivity of the groups to various factors influencing these behaviour indicators. The study findings suggest that the low-income group non-workers are more mobility-constrained than others, apparent from longer walk trip length and the lower dependency on other modes of transport. The low-income group appears to make more social stops than the other two groups, probably a reflection of social-connections due to the increased dependency on walking. However, the number of recreational and shopping stops made by this group appears to be significantly lower than the other two groups. Further, the influence of mixed residential development on low-income group individuals' maintenance and discretionary activity time allocation decision appears to be insignificant. Overall, the study suggests that future land use planning for Bangalore might ensure that all groups of individuals have equal access (in terms of travel time/distance) to basic facilities.