‘New urbanism’ or metropolitan-level centralization? A comparison of the influences of metropolitan-level and neighborhood-level urban form characteristics on travel behavior

Abstract

Based on a study in the Copenhagen Metropolitan Area, this paper compares the influences of macro-level and micro-level urban form characteristics on the respondents’ traveling distance by car on weekdays. The Copenhagen study shows that metropolitan-scale urban- structural variables generally exert stronger influences than neighborhood-scale built-environment characteristics on the amount of car travel. In particular, the location of the residence relative to the main city center of the metropolitan region shows a strong effect. Some local scale variables often described as influential in the literature, such as neighborhood street pattern, show no significant effect on car travel when provisions are made to control for the location of the dwelling relative to the city center.