JTLU Volume 8, No. 2 (2015)

Persistent link for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/11299/174057

Table of Contents:

Viewpoint: Transport’s digital age transition, pp. 1-19

Transit-oriented development and the frequency of modal use, pp. 21-44

The importance of neighborhood type dissonance in understanding the effect of the built environment on travel behavior, pp. 45-57

Stay local or go regional? Urban form effects on vehicle use at different spatial scales: A theoretical concept and its application to the San Francisco Bay Area, pp. 59-86

Mode use in long-distance travel, pp. 87-105

Using an accelerated vehicle retirement program (AVRP) to support a mode shift: Car purchase and modal intentions following program participation, pp. 107-123

Local environment characteristics associated with walking and taking transit to shopping districts, pp. 125-147

Downtown, strip centers, and big-box stores: Mode choice by shopping destination type in Davis, California, pp. 149-170

Has Mexico City’s shift to commercially produced housing increased car ownership and car use?, pp. 171-189

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Viewpoint: Transport's digital age transition
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Lyons, Glenn
2014 marks the 25th birthday of the World Wide Web. We have seen some remarkable developments as part of the digital age revolution in the last quarter of a century. These have taken place concurrently with a motor age that is possibly past its prime. A number of major motor manufacturers have faced disappointing sales or financial crisis alongside several countries seeing a halt to the historic trend of growing car use. The co-existence of the motor age and the digital age prompts this paper to consider the hypothesis that society is undergoing a fundamental transition from a regime of automobility to something significantly different. The paper considers what has characterized the motor age and proceeds to examine the digital revolution and how this is changing people’s means to access people, goods, services and opportunities. The range of interactions between the motor age and the digital age are addressed, underlining the difficulty in establishing the net consequence of one for the other. The new debates concerning ‘peak car’ are considered in which the digital age is identified as potentially one key factor responsible for observed changes in car use. The paper then focuses upon a sociotechnical conceptualization of society known as the Multilayer Perspective to examine its hypothesis. Support or not for the hypothesis is not, as yet, established. Transport’s future in the digital age is uncertain and the paper sets out some views on resulting policy considerations and research needs.
Transit-oriented development and the frequency of modal use
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Noland, Robert B.; DiPetrillo, Stephanie
Transit-oriented development (TOD) is assumed to be effective at changing the travel behavior of individuals, particularly in increasing the use of public transit, but also by increasing walking activity while decreasing driving. The analysis presented here examines the frequency of using these modes of travel for those living in TODs and proximate to a train station versus those living more distantly. Household survey data was collected for the area surrounding eight rail stations in the state of New Jersey in the United States. The models developed include factors that control for attitudes about the neighborhood where respondents reside and how long they have lived at their current residence. Other control variables to represent the urban design of the neighborhood are also included. A factor analysis of the attitudinal variables produces five factors that are used as controls in an ordered structural equation model of frequency of using public transit, walking, and driving. Results suggest that those living in TODs and closer to the train station use public transit and walk more frequently than those living farther out; they also drive less frequently than those living farther out.
The importance of neighborhood type dissonance in understanding the effect of the built environment on travel behavior
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Manaugh, Kevin; El-Geneidy, Ahmed M.
For many years, researchers have struggled to separate the effects of personal tastes—including residential choices—from built environment and transport related factors when attempting to understand and model travel behavior. This paper will briefly describe how issues related to self-selection, if not controlled for in a travel behavior analysis, can lead to over- and under-estimation of the effect of the built environment on travel behavior. A theoretical model is presented, which is followed by an empirical analysis based on survey data capturing residential choice factors to test our theory. Our analysis shows that by separating people that have chosen their current home location based primarily on transport-related concerns from people who have located based primarily on housing and neighborhood characteristics, we are able to gain a nuanced understanding of how various “costs” associated with using public transit (access time, waiting time, and transfers) affect the likelihood of taking transit. We find a strong aversion to transfers as well as different responses to these factors based on reasons for living in a given location. We demonstrate how model predictions vary greatly especially when self-selection factors are included in the analysis. Findings from this research shed light on the importance of self-selection in travel behavior research, giving transport planners and engineers clear examples how ignoring these factors can lead to misleading findings.
Stay local or go regional? Urban form effects on vehicle use at different spatial scales: A theoretical concept and its application to the San Francisco Bay Area
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Milakis, Dimitris; Cervero, Robert; van Wee, Bert
This paper explores the respective roles of local and regional characteristics of urban form on vehicle travel. We hypothesize that the effects of urban form on vehicle use at the local and regional levels are complementary, and we introduce the concept of local and regional action spaces, which are defined based on the accessibility of alternative means of transport within an acceptable travel time, to test this hypothesis. Multilevel and ordered logit models are developed for the San Francisco Bay Area to estimate the effects of urban form and socioeconomic characteristics on vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) and vehicle trip frequency (for work, shopping, and social/recreational purposes). We find that the two urban scale characteristics exert complementary effects on VKT. However, because people in the San Francisco Bay Area display significantly lower VKT in the local than in the regional action space, we conclude that regional-scale interventions would contribute more to the policy objective of VKT reduction, although local-scale design policies might also help reach this policy goal. Intersection density (for the local action space models) and regional jobs accessibility (for the regional action space models) demonstrated the strongest and most significant relationships with VKT. The built environment did not appear to significantly affect vehicle trip frequency, which is likely due to the uniformly high levels of vehicle use in both the local and regional action spaces in the area.
Mode use in long-distance travel
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Reichert, Alexander; Holz-Rau, Christian
This paper focuses on mode use in long-distance travel. Long-distance travel is responsible for more than 50 percent of climate impact. Nevertheless, it is usually excluded from analyses that examine travel behavior. Whereas studies on daily travel prove that the rural population covers longer distances in daily travel, recent studies (e.g., Holz-Rau, Scheiner, and Sicks 2014; Brand and Preston 2010) show a different picture in long-distance travel. Here, the urban population undertakes more long-distance trips, especially by air. The aim of this paper is to analyze the mode use in long-distance travel in different spatial settings by using multivariate regression models. The (underlying) data derive from a nationwide survey with a sample size of 60,713 respondents, Mobility in Germany 2008 (MiD). A broad range of sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics are thereby included as control variables. The results show that even when household income, car accessibility, and education level are considered, the urban population undertakes more long-distance trips, in particular by train and by air. These differences are found in business as well as in private travel.
Using an accelerated vehicle retirement program (AVRP) to support a mode shift: Car purchase and modal intentions following program participation
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Lachapelle, Ugo
To stimulate the economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from older vehicles, most accelerated vehicle retirement programs (AVRPs) provide participants with incentives to purchase a new, less-polluting vehicle. The province of Québec also designed its AVRP as a mode-shift tool by providing alternative travel incentives to participants. Alternatives include public transit passes, rebates on bicycles and car-sharing memberships. In the absence of post-program assessment, the theory of planned behavior is used to assess participants’ modal intentions and intentions to purchase a new or used vehicle following participation. A subset (22 percent) of program participants (2009-2011; n=9070) filled out an optional survey about vehicle purchases and travel intentions. Age, gender, income, distance traveled in the previous year and perceived access to public transit were used as independent variables in logit and multinomial logit regressions. Car purchase intentions and traveling by car were associated with greater distance traveled. Higher-income participants were more likely to purchase new vehicles, and lower-income people and students were more likely to purchase used vehicles or refrain from any purchase. Alternative travel intentions were each associated with different sociodemographic characteristics. Québec’s program offers a promising incentive-based opportunity to influence mode shift if favorable circumstances are in place to enhance access to alternative travel modes.
Local environment characteristics associated with walking and taking transit to shopping districts
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Schneider, Robert James
Mixed logit modeling was used to identify local environment characteristics associated with walking and taking public transit to and from shopping districts. The analysis was based on 388 intercept survey responses and local environment data from 20 San Francisco Bay Area shopping districts. This study makes methodological advances by 1) evaluating an extensive set of explanatory variables (travel time and cost, socioeconomic characteristics, attitudes, perceptions, and local environment characteristics) within the same modeling process and 2) analyzing shopping mode choice within a tour-based framework. Travel time, travel cost, and respondent socioeconomic characteristics had expected relationships with mode choice. Walking to and from shopping districts was associated with shorter trip distances (i.e., shorter travel time relative to other modes). Transit use was associated with shopping district population density and proximity to a transit station. Automobile use was discouraged by higher employment densities and smaller parking lots. The results support strategies such as developing high-density, mixed-use activity hubs; reducing surface parking; and increasing the price of on-street parking to increase walking and taking transit to shopping districts.
Downtown, strip centers, and big-box stores: Mode choice by shopping destination type in Davis, California
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Popovich, Natalie Danielle; Handy, Susan
Growing concerns about climate change and traffic congestion are motivating policymakers to find ways to encourage sustainable travel options. In the United States, where 88 percent of shopping trips are made by car, research identifying the factors that influence shopping mode choice can provide insight into ways to divert some of these trips to more sustainable alternatives. This paper aims to better explain the relationship between the built environment and shopping mode choice by examining how mode choice differs for the same individual across three different types of shopping destinations—downtown, strip center, and big box—in Davis, California. We conducted two cross-sectional online surveys in 2009 and 2010 with a total of 2043 respondents that asked questions about recent shopping. To understand the factors influencing mode choice at these three shopping destination types, we estimate binary logit models for choosing to use an active travel mode (bike or walk) to shop. Our results suggest that while distinct factors influence mode choice at the different destination types, simple infrastructure changes to the destination are not enough to encourage mode shift. Distance to shopping destinations and enjoying bicycling are the primary determinants of choosing active travel modes, while socio-demographic characteristics play a smaller role.
Has Mexico City’s shift to commercially produced housing increased car ownership and car use?
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Guerra, Erick
Mexico City’s principal form of housing production has shifted over the past two decades. More households now purchase houses in large commercially built housing developments than move into informal settlements. Looking at 1500 households in two suburban municipalities from a 2007 metropolitan travel survey, this study is the first to quantify differences in car ownership and car use across households in informal settlements and commercial housing developments. Accounting for income, proxies for wealth, household composition, and geography, households living in commercial housing developments are likely to own more cars and drive more than similar households in neighboring informal settlements. A test for residential self-selection finds no unobserved correlations across households that own cars and live in commercial housing developments, suggesting that the included controls do a good job of capturing the effects of residential self-selection or that the effects are limited. Something about the local land use and design of new commercial housing developments appears conducive to car ownership and use. Differences between the two settlement types, including more parking, wider streets, less-connected street-grids, and less accessible transit stops in commercial settlements, likely play a role.