Location Choice vis-à-vis Transportation: Apartment Dwellers

Abstract

An understanding of residential location choice is fundamental to behavioral models of land use and, ultimately, travel demand. Detailed data and predictive models are needed. This research examined choices of apartment dwellers and their reasons for moving, their priorities when choosing a residential location, and the trade-offs involved. In addition to summary statistics of the data, linear regressions, binary logit, and ordered probit models were used to investigate variations in rent and apartment size and stated preferences of housing, location, transportation, and access. Binary logit and ordered probit models reveal similar results concerning people's preferences for accessibility. For instance, families and other multiperson households tend to place less value on commute times and freeway access and choose apartment improvements over travel savings. Women are more likely to state that they place a higher importance on commute time and freeway access, but, when asked to choose between travel times...