A study of car and home ownership decisions in the face of increasing commuting expenses (CHOICE) in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)

Abstract

This paper presents a study of Car and Home Ownership decisions in the face of Increasing Commuting Expenses (CHOICE) within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) of Canada. The CHOICE study uses a web-based survey tool to collect data from a sample of households with cross-regional commuters. The survey uses stated preference experiments pivoted on the retrospective revealed preference information of commuting trips, car ownership, and home ownership of participating households. Data collected through the survey are then used to estimate econometric choice models of households’ reactions to increasing commuting costs by either changing the car fleet or changing the home location and dwelling type. The study reveals that, with increasing commuting expenses, households are willing to change their usual travel behavior, but such adaptation is not straight-forward. Choosing a more efficient car is a more favorable solution than switching to transit, while choosing a different home location to reduce commuting costs is less common. Currently, suburban households prefer moving to another suburban region instead of moving into the city. This study provides evidence that vehicle ownership and residential location decisions follow complex and interrelated processes, and it clearly shows that home-related decisions are not necessarily adapted in response to increased commuting costs.