Abstract
Residential self-selection (RSS) is the theoretical mechanism that explains that the impact of the built environment on travel behaviour is weaker than bivariate correlations suggest, because mode attitudes influence both the built environment and travel behaviour and therefore at least partially account for the bivariate relationship. Recently, the concept of travel-related reasons for residential choice has been introduced, which reflects the actual extent to which the travel-related characteristics of the built environment were considered during the relocation decision. In this paper, we hypothesize that travel-related location reasons are stronger predictors of the built environment choice than generic mode attitudes. This hypothesis is examined by estimating both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal Structural Equation Model using data gathered in the Netherlands. The results suggest that the travel-related location reasons are indeed stronger predictors for built environment location than travel mode attitudes and that the directions of causality between attitudes, travel-related location reasons, the built environment, and travel behaviour often run in both directions. Substantively, our findings indicate that public transport use is most strongly affected by the built environment (after controlling for both stated reasons and attitudes), while car and bicycle use are hardly affected. From a practical point of view, this suggests that transforming the built environment to be more friendly to public transport may increase the use of public transport, but that, at least in the Netherlands, such a strategy would not work well if the aim were to reduce car use or increase bicycle use.
Highlights
The car is the dominant travel mode in the European Union, ac counting for more than half of all trips in 2015 (Fiorello, Martino, Zani, Christidis, & Navajas-Cawood, 2016)
The results suggest that the travel-related location reasons are stronger predictors for built environment location than travel mode attitudes and that the directions of causality between attitudes, travel-related location reasons, the built environment, and travel behaviour often run in both directions
The two main hypotheses were that travel-related location reasons have a stronger effect on the choice of built environment than travel attitudes, whereas travel attitudes would have a stronger effect on travel behaviour
Summary
The car is the dominant travel mode in the European Union, ac counting for more than half of all trips in 2015 (Fiorello, Martino, Zani, Christidis, & Navajas-Cawood, 2016). Decreasing the reliance on the car and increasing the travel share of other modes is seen as desirable to increase sustainability (Wang, Wang, Fang, & Li, 2019), improve public health (de Nazelle, Morton, Jerrett, & CrawfordBrown, 2010; Grabow et al, 2011) and (possibly) reduce congestion (Hensher & Puckett, 2007). With this policy goal in mind, an important research objective has been to find factors that reduce the distance travelled by car. Based on the assumption that the built environment influences travel behaviour, policies have been developed to increase the connectivity, density, and public transport accessibility of the built environment to facilitate the use of alternative travel modes to the private car (Cao, Mokhtarian, & Handy, 2009; Ewing & Cervero, 2010)
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