Abstract
Spatial planning and policy continues to be used as a tool to bring about changes in travel behavior. Policy suggests that by creating particular urban forms, demand for travel by car can be reduced. This paper uses data collected in 2006 from 280 households in Glasgow and Edinburgh to analyze the relationships between urban form and vehicle miles driven, with an emphasis on those who had recently relocated. Population densities, housing type, distance to urban center, and measures of mix were collected for the current residential location and prior residence for those who had relocated in the previous three years. An ordinal regression model of change in urban form showed significant associations with reported change in miles driven, although the effect was small compared with the effects of socioeconomic factors and car ownership. While the results give some weight to intensification as a policy to bring about a reduction in average distance driven, there may be an increase in total distance driven in the intensified area with a corresponding increase in congestion. Whether such intensification can be enacted against a backdrop of preferences toward suburban, car-oriented living is contentious. As such, this study calls into question the use of planning policy as a means to reduce car use in Scottish cities.
Highlights
There has been a long-standing interest in the nature of the relationship between land use configuration and travel demand
While change in car use was explained to a large extent by change in car ownership, a number of urban form variables were statistically significant predictors of change in car use for those who had moved home in the previous three years
For such households, increased distance to the nearest urban center and a reduction in the number of jobs in the ward compared to the population both related to a reported increase in car use; the magnitude of the effects was small compared to car ownership
Summary
There has been a long-standing interest in the nature of the relationship between land use configuration and travel demand. The aim of the study reported in this paper was to examine the effect of a change in urban form arising from a residential relocation on car use This is one of only a handful of studies to adopt a quasi-longitudinal design and is the first to be carried out in a Scottish context. This design enabled an analysis of change in urban form and change in car use for all activities to be analyzed, providing new evidence as to whether changing urban forms can reduce car use and the efficacy of Scottish planning policies
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