Impact of corridor highway system on communities: Built environment and travel mode choices

Abstract

Conventional corridor management has focused on travel speed and efficiency while ignoring interactions between highway corridors and surrounding areas. This study investigates the interaction between the corridor highway system and the built environment around highways by estimating sustainable mode choices with respect to the land use characteristics of surrounding corridor highways throughout 29 regions in the U.S. The results indicate that the D variables at the corridor level matter. D variables at the corridor level, such as activity density, job-population balance, percentage of accessible jobs within 10 min by car, intersection density, percentage of 4-way intersections, and transit stop density, were highly associated with internal capture, walking trips, and transit use. The neighborhoods with higher activity density, job-population balance, intersection density, and better employment accessibility by transit experienced reduced VMT. The likelihood of internal trips, walking trips, and transit use decreased with household size and income; the opposite signs were found with VMT. The regional gasoline price had significant effects on all trips. In conclusion, this study provides planning and transportation researchers and practitioners with new evidence on the importance of built environmental characteristics (D variables) to encourage sustainable mode choices in the proximate neighborhoods of corridor highways.