The indirect effect of the built environment on travel mode choice: A focus on recent movers

Many studies have demonstrated that the built environment has a strong impact on people's travel mode choice. However, the built environment also influences elements such as travel distance and car ownership, which might be the true predictors of which travel modes are chosen. In this study, we analyse the effects of changes in residential neighbourhood on changes in travel mode (for commute trips and leisure trips), both directly and indirectly through changes in car ownership, travel distances and travel attitudes. This study applies a structural equation modelling approach using quasi-longitudinal data from 1650 recently relocated residents in the city of Ghent, Belgium. Results indicate that the built environment has strong direct effects on active leisure trips and car use. However, distance (for car use) and attitudes (for active travel) were found to be important mediating variables. In sum, the effect of the built environment on travel mode choice might be more complex than commonly assumed as it partly seems mediated by travel distance and travel attitudes.     

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.     

Built environment effects on leisure travel for children: Trip generation and travel mode

This study empirically analyzed the effects of built environment on leisure travel among children. Students of three elementary schools, namely Yangmingshan, Sanyu and Shilin, all located in the Shilin District of Taipei, were chosen to provide sample data. The negative binomial regression model and multinomial logit model were used to analyze trip generation and travel mode, respectively. This study reached the following empirical findings: (1) mixed land use, employment density, walkway quality, leisure facility supply and leisure travel distance encouraged generation of leisure trips for children; (2) intersection density, building density, employment density and walkway quality encouraged a child to use transit systems or non-motorized travel modes for leisure travel; and (3) vehicle density and leisure travel distance discouraged walking and biking but encouraged the use of transit systems for leisure travel involving children. Local government can use the empirical findings of this study to develop urban planning strategies to encourage children to perform leisure activities outside the home using transit systems or non-motorized travel modes.     

Residential dissonance and walking for transport

The concept of residential dissonance contextualizes the combined impact of built environment and individual travel and land-use preferences on travel behavior. A limited number of studies have explored the effect of residential dissonance specifically on walking. However, evidence from the active travel literature suggests that the environmental characteristics associated with diverse active travel modes differ to some extent. This study addresses residential dissonance in a framework specific for walking outcomes, as the applied neighborhood boundaries, residential preferences and the observed built environment were operationalized with measures related to walking for transport. SoftGIS, a public participatory GIS method allowing the mapping of frequently visited destinations was used to survey the daily walking behavior of 772 respondents aged 25–40 years living in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland. Ordinal logistic regression analyses were used to assess the adjusted odds of walking a high share of estimated monthly trips and travel distance. The identified residential dissonance groups were found to have significant associations with the walking outcomes. Associations between the observed neighborhood walkability and the walking outcomes varied by trip purpose, being more consistent with walking to utilitarian than to recreational destinations. Overall, the results support views on the interconnectedness of individual attitudes and the built environment in facilitating walking for transport.     

The structure of joint leisure trips: analyzing two-person leisure trips of Dutch students

This paper investigates the spatial structure of students’ leisure trips and to what extent locational characteristics of social network partners influence decisions about their joint leisure activities and travel. To this end a survey was held among university students asking them about details of their last leisure trip made with a friend. Cluster analysis suggests that four typical leisure trip patterns can be derived. Three clusters seem to be determined by the residential locations of ego and alter. Depending on the residential distance between ego and alter, leisure trip distances are either short for ego and alter (if residential distance is very short), somewhat longer for both (if residential distance is slightly longer) or long for at least one partner (if residential distance is large). A fourth cluster includes cases with long leisure trips for both partners, independent of residential distance, representing cases where specific destinations are visited. A more detailed analysis of travel distance suggests that travel distance depends on size of the residential municipality, residential distance and objective and perceived quality of leisure facilities such as cafés, bars and restaurants. Overall, our study provides support for the idea that leisure trip decisions should be understood on the level of social network ties (i.e. ego and alter) rather than based on individual characteristics only. Also, it provides support for the idea that a focus on single ties, rather than on the structure of social networks as a whole, increases our insight in leisure trip decision making.Keywords: Social network links, Social-recreational travel, Spatial context, Students     

Interrelations between travel mode choice and trip distance: trends in Germany 1976–2002

In recent decades, trends in travel behaviour have been characterised by increasing trip distances and a modal shift towards the private car. This paper reports findings from longitudinal analyses of the German nation-wide travel survey KONTIV for the period 1976–2002. It focuses on travel mode choice, subdivided by distance categories, and also takes car availability and city size into account. In addition, trends in car availability itself are examined by city size categories. The results indicate that even within the same distance categories car use has considerably increased. In some cases bicycle use has increased as well. Gains in the use of the private car are mainly at the expense of trips on foot and by public transport. Accordingly, the shift in modal split towards the car is not (only) caused by increasing trip distances but took place even within distance classes. Once car availability is taken into account, the modal shifts appear to be considerably weaker. This suggests that once car availability is held constant the decision rationales of mode choice for a certain trip distance have remained relatively stable. The increase in motorisation over the study period was considerably weaker in large cities than in small towns, although the cities started from a lower level in the 1970s. Thus, the motorisation divide between cities on the one hand, and suburban and rural areas on the other hand has become ever wider. For travel mode choice, the picture is similar. What is more, the results suggest that even car owners are more inclined to walk a given distance in the cities than in small towns, even more so if they live in a central urban area. The built environment, thus, appears to have a strong impact on whether an available car is used or not.     

Assessing the role of the built environment and sociodemographic characteristics on walking travel distances in Bogotá

Planning for more sustainable mobility is an important goal for public authorities worldwide. Setting better conditions for pedestrians and cyclists has been related to many social benefits, such as less pollution and congestion. Local authorities, aware of the relationship between transport and land-use, are adopting planning tools to analyze growth in cities and their impacts using multiple indicators. This paper develops an econometric trip length model that correlates socioeconomic characteristics and built environment conditions with walking travel distances in the city of Bogotá, Colombia. A log-linear regression model was estimated using information for 2015 of Bogotá's household travel survey, along with data of employment and population by block obtained from official sources. The built environment component of the model serves to evaluate the effect of land-use patterns. A proof of concept was developed using land-use information extracted from a Cellular Automata Land-Use model calibrated for the city. From its results, some factors of the built environment were estimated and two scenarios were tested in this study. One depicts the average walking distance for households surveyed in 2015, and the other takes a simulation of land-use policy in developing a new urban area as an input. The results indicate that people living in areas were the land-use mix and job/population ratio are low, tend to have longer walking distances, suggesting the need to implement special policies that reallocate some activities and encourage higher land-use mix in the urban periphery where low-income households tend to be located. The proposed method can identify the impact of land-use policies in the distances traveled by walking, facilitating the impact assessment of land-use regulations.     

Built environment diversities and activity–travel behaviour variations in Beijing, China

The association between built environment and travel behaviour has received considerable research attention in recent years. In an attempt to contribute to this growing literature, this paper investigates the connections between urban built environments and activity–travel patterns in Beijing, the capital city of China. We characterize the built environment in Beijing and establish associations between built environment and activity–travel behaviour in terms of car ownership, time spent for out-of-home activities, and daily trip frequencies and travel time. Activity diaries from 1119 respondents living in ten different neighbourhoods were collected by face-to-face interviews. A household-level structure equations model incorporating intra-household interactions is developed to analyse this data. The empirical results show that residents of different types of neighbourhoods in Beijing demonstrate significant differences in car ownership, time spent for out-of-home activities, trip rate, and travel time. Further, the characteristics of the built environment are found to have more significant impacts on the activity–travel behaviour of the male head than that of the female head.     

Mitigating the impact of errors in travel time reporting on mode choice modelling

Travel time is a major component in understanding travel demand. However, the quantification of demand and forecasting hinges on understanding how travel time is perceived and reported. Travel time reporting is typically subject to errors and this paper focuses on the mitigation of their impact on choice models. The aim is to explain the origin of these errors by including elements of travel behaviour (e.g., activities during the trip), which have been shown to significantly affect mode choices and commuting satisfaction. Based on responses from a revealed preferences survey, we estimate a mode choice model that treats travel time as a latent variable and incorporates different sources of data along with information on travel activities. Employing these multiple – sometimes incongruent – sources of information in the choice model appears to be beneficial. Results from comparing a logit model assuming error-free inputs and the integrated hybrid model revealed significant impacts on the generated policy scenarios. The model results also contributed to identifying the main travel activity features that affect travel time reporting, providing indications that can assist in understanding and mitigating the impact of imprecise measurements.     

UK air travel preferences: Evidence from an East Midlands household survey

Air travel preferences of the general public are examined from a household survey in the Charnwood Borough Council area of Leicestershire, within the East Midlands region of the UK. Survey analysis shows that individuals frequently fly using low-cost airlines for leisure purposes, and often travel long distances to access airports. The price sensitivity of respondents to changes in air fares varies across the sample. Most respondents agree that there are both economic benefits and environment disbenefits associated with aviation.     

The tourist experience of domestic VFR travellers: the case of Hungary

Visiting friends and relatives (VFR) is the main driver of domestic travel in many countries. This study is one of the first to analyse VFR travel from a perspective of tourist experience. This study aims to investigate the complex dynamics behind VFR-related travel, especially in aspects of trip activities and tourist experience formation. Based on a survey (N?=?879) examining domestic VFR travellers’ trip activities in Hungary, the paper discusses the formation of a tourist experience in context of short-haul domestic VFR travel, especially the role of influencing factors. The results reveal differences between the segments with trip motivation of visiting friends (VF) and visiting relatives (VR) – the two main types of VFR tourists. It was found that independent variables such as VF, staying for longer and participating in leisure and tourism-type activities have a positive effect on tourist experience evolvement; however, factors such as VR, being rather passive during such a visit and focusing on social acts and bonding negatively affect the formulation of a tourist experience. The paper’s novelty and uniqueness lies in applying a new perspective of analysing and discussing VFR travel: the theoretical concept of tourist experience formation.     

Key research themes on travel behavior,lifestyle, and sustainable urban mobility

abstract

The concept of lifestyle adds a behavioral component to travel models that used to be dominated by engineering and econometric traditions. This article presents an overview of how lifestyle is defined and measured in transport studies, and how travel behavior is influenced by lifestyles. Lifestyles are often used pragmatically rather than theoretically in the behavior studies. Nevertheless, some important theoretical contributions have been made, especially in sociology by scholars such as Weber, Bourdieu, Ganzeboom, and Schulze who agree on the communicative character of lifestyles: individuals express their social position through specific patterns of behavior, consumption, and leisure. These behavioral patterns are shaped by underlying opinions and orientations, including beliefs, interests, and attitudes. Thus, travel behavior is not simply determined by price, speed, and comfort but is also related to attitudes, status, and preferences. Because lifestyle has many different dimensions, a variety of measurement approaches exists. Nevertheless, most studies suggest that travel behavior is conditioned by specific lifestyles. How lifestyles themselves can be modified to promote more sustainable patterns of transport has not received much attention to date. This article argues that lifestyles need to be considered as dynamic rather than as static and given, and that future research could delve more deeply into this area.     

Non-linear associations between built environment and active travel for working and shopping: An extreme gradient boosting approach

Active travel has environmental, social, and public health-related benefits. Researchers from diverse domains have extensively studied built-environment associations with active travel. However, limited attention has been paid to distinguishing the associations between built environment characteristics at both the origins and destinations and active travel for working and shopping. Scholars have started to examine non-linear associations of built environment with travel behaviour, but active travel has seldom been a focus. Therefore, this study, selecting Xiamen, China, as the case, utilises a state-of-the-art machine learning method (i.e., extreme gradient boosting) to explore the non-linear associations between built environment and active travel for working and shopping. Our findings are as follows. (1) For both purposes, trip characteristics contribute the greatest, and the built environment is also quite important and has larger collective contributions for active travel than does socioeconomics. (2) The relative importance of built environment on active travel for shopping is evidently larger than that for working. (3) All built-environment variables have non-linear associations with active travel, and associations with active travel for working are generally in inverted U or V shapes, while those with shopping trips have much more complex patterns. (4) Differences in the threshold value and gradient exist between built-environment associations with active travel for working and shopping and between variables at origins and destinations. Decision makers are recommended to meticulously disentangle the complex influences of built environment on active travel and distinguish between diverse purposes to make informed and targeted interventions.     

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.     

Valuation of travel time for international long-distance travel – results from the Fehmarn Belt stated choice experiment

The geographical scope of travel varies from short distances in urban areas to long distances across cities and countries. While urban travel has been widely analysed in the literature, travel over longer distances and particularly across countries, has received much less attention. While this may be justified due to the number of travellers it cannot be justified when looking at the mileage consumption and its resulting environmental impacts. In this paper, we investigate international long-distance travel preferences related to travel between Scandinavia and Central Europe with particular focus on the Fehmarn Belt fixed link between Germany and Denmark to be opened in 2021. To facilitate long-term demand forecasts for the future fixed link, stated preference data were collected in 2011. Based on these data a discrete choice model for long-distance travellers was developed in order to estimate the value of travel time savings (VTTS). The final model, which was formulated as a nested logit model and included Box–Cox transformed travel time and cost attributes, revealed several interesting findings. Firstly, we found damping effects in both cost and time – most strongly in cost. Secondly, we found significant interactions among travel cost and time, and journey characteristics, such as distance and duration. This had direct impact on the VTTS, which was shown to decrease with distance and duration. Thirdly, we found that air travel implies a higher average VTTS, which is to be expected but rarely supported by empirical evidence.     

An approach to imputing destination activities for inclusion in measures of bicycle accessibility

This paper proposes a new method to estimate bicycle accessibility for various trip purposes based on a massive dockless bike-sharing dataset in Shanghai, China. Specifically, a Dirichlet multinomial regression topic model (DMR model) is applied to identify bicycle trajectories' trip purposes, simultaneously considering arrival time and drop-off location. Based on obtained trip purposes, we estimate impedance functions using a negative exponential function. Finally, based on estimated impedance functions, two cases of bicycle accessibility for two different purposes - restaurant and hospital - are presented in Shanghais central area. The results show that almost 90% of bicycle trips are less than 30 min or 5 km. Although the difference between the impedance functions between various trip purposes is not significant, we find that trip purposes of “Work and School” have the highest travel impedance for bicyclists. Cyclists in Shanghai accept longer bicycle travel times for leisure (e.g., shopping) than for commuting (e.g., work or school).     

Household Expenditures for Leisure Tourism in the USA, 1996 and 2006

Using Consumer Expenditure Survey data, this study compares the different impacts of household socio‐economic characteristics on leisure travel expenditure patterns between 1996 and 2006. The total expenditure is divided into food/beverage, lodging, transportation and sightseeing/entertainment to examine more specific changes. Results indicate that family size, gender, number of elderly family members, race and region/location had different impacts on leisure trip consumption patterns in 1996 and 2006. There is no evident change for the income elasticities of four categories between these two years. The upward direction in high‐income households reflects the potential for luxury sightseeing and entertainment activities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Evaluating the reliability of reported distance data in urban travel behaviour analysis

The objective of the present paper is to analyze the accuracy of reported distances in travel behaviour research, and to distil from this analysis some useful recommendations for data collection and handling in activity-based modelling. This issue is important because we know from the literature on distance cognition that conjecture, perception and rounding in distance reporting is a rule, rather than an exception. The outcome is a biased transport modelling result. The paper introduces some theoretical reflections on distance measurements and cognition. Next, using household travel survey data collected in 2000 for the city of Ghent, Belgium, the problem of reported distance reliability is examined. A comparison of travel distances using detour factors revealed that self-reported distances provide reasonable estimates of shortest distance path distances. With respect to the effect outliers and rounding have on the reliability of reported distances it is found that mean detour factors are very much dominated by outliers over short distances, but that rounding has little impact. The accuracy of self-reported distances is also influenced by the socio-demographic profile of the respondents, the characteristics of the trip, and the type of transport mode used.