Understanding neighbourhood design impact on travel behaviour: an application of structural equations model to the british micro-analysis data

Paulus T Aditjandra, Xinyu Cao, Corinne Mulley

Research output: Contribution to conferenceUnpublished paperpeer-review

Abstract

The objective of this study is to explore whether changes in neighbourhood characteristics bring about changes in travel choice. Residential self-selection is a concern in the connections between land-use and travel behaviour. The recent literature suggests that a longitudinal structural equations modelling (SEM) approach can be a powerful tool to assess the importance of neighbourhood characteristics on travel behaviour as opposed to the attitude-induced residential self-selection. However, the evidence to date is limited to particular geographical areas and evidence from one country might not be transferrable to another because of differences in land-use and land-use policies. The paper is to address the gap by extending the evidence using British data. The case study is based on the metropolitan area of Tyne and Wear, North East of England, UK. An SEM is applied to 219 respondents who reported residential relocation within the previous 8 years. We found that neighbourhood characteristics do change travel behaviour. Changes in travel accessibility has a negative relationship with changes in driving behaviour. Thus, the more people are exposed to public transport access, the more likely they drive less. A vital social environment also reduces the amount of private car travel. Changes in neighbourhood characteristics lead to changes in car ownership. These findings suggest that land-use policies at neighbourhood level can play an important role in shaping travel behaviour towards sustainable travel patterns.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2010
Event12th World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR) - Lisbon, Portugal
Duration: 1 Jul 20103 Jul 2010

Conference

Conference12th World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR)
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityLisbon
Period1/07/103/07/10

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