Impact of Metropolitan-Level Built Environment on Travel Behavior

Abstract

There has been growing recognition of the significant impact that land use patterns have on travel behavior; changes in built environment patterns could potentially be considered as a long-term solution in changing people's travel behavior, especially their vehicle miles traveled (VMT). However, the existing literature has mainly focused on local and neighborhood characteristics of the built environment, and little is known about the unique or relative influence of the metropolitan-level built environment. In this empirical analysis, an extensive database is used for six major metropolitan areas in the United States to employ a multilevel mixed-effect model that highlights the impact of built environment characteristics on travel behavior at different scales. The findings show that changes in built environment measures, not only at local and neighborhood levels but also at larger metropolitan and regional levels, could be influential in changing people's travel behavior. Specifically, the promotion of a compact, mixed-use built environment with a well-connected street network could help to reduce VMT and thus provide better solutions to transportation-related issues such as traffic congestion, air pollution, and high energy consumption.