Abstract
Numerous studies have found that travel attitudes might not only affect travel behavior, but also the residential location choice as people might choose a residential location based on their travel preferences and needs (i.e. transport-related residential self-selection). However, it might also be possible that the residential location and travel behavior influence attitudes towards travel. In this study—using quasi-longitudinal data—we analyze how a change in the residential environment affects attitudes towards specific modes, both directly and indirectly through changes in mode frequency (of commute and leisure trips). Using a structural equation modeling approach on 1650 recently relocated residents in the city of Ghent, Belgium, this study indicates that moving to a more urban type of neighborhood improves attitudes towards public transport and active travel. Especially for leisure trips the effects from changes in the built environment on attitudes are partly indirect through changes in mode frequency. This study offers new insights into the links between the built environment, travel behavior and attitudes. We provide further evidence that the built environment influences travel attitudes, but also indicate that these effects are partly mediated by travel mode frequency.
Highlights
Numerous studies have indicated that the built environment—and the residential location in particular—has an important impact on how people travel
We found that the built environment can affect travel attitudes, both directly and indirectly through travel behavior, this does not mean that reverse effects from attitudes to the built environment and travel behavior do not exist
Using a structural equation model (SEM) approach on 1650 recently relocated residents, we found that changes in mode-specific attitudes are affected by changes in people’s residential location, albeit differently according to travel purpose and travel mode
Summary
Numerous studies have indicated that the built environment—and the residential location in particular—has an important impact on how people travel. Respondents in this study have recently relocated to selected neighborhoods in the city of Ghent (Belgium), changing their residential environment, and possibly their travel behavior and attitudes. SEMs have been applied for measuring self-selection effects Both Bagley and Mokhtarian (2002) and Cao et al (2007) found that travel attitudes have a significant effect on travel behavior, both directly and indirectly through the residential location choice. Most variables included in the models (except for socio-demographics and changes in car ownership) capture self-reported, retrospective changes in residential neighborhood, behavior and attitudes measured by a five-point Likert scale As a result, these (directly observed) manifest variables are ordinal in nature and can be regarded as subjective and rather crude measurements, making it difficult to truly capture the magnitude of (relationships between) changes in the built environment, changes in travel behavior, and changes in attitudes. Retrospectively measuring attitudes remains subject to debate—as it is vulnerable to memory and consistency biases (i.e. unreliable attempts to recall one’s attitudes and confounding previous attitudes with current one’s, respectively)—this measurement method can be considered as reliable since studies have indicated that results are often similar with longitudinal measurements of attitude change (Haggard et al 1960; Jaspers et al 2009), a result that has been found for cycling attitudes (Thigpen 2019a,b)
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