Travel and the social environment: Evidence from Alameda County, California

Abstract

The relationship between travel and the environment has been the subject of much study but the focus has mainly been on the physical and built environment. This ignores a large body of research in sociology showing that social processes are spatially embedded and affect individual behavior. This analysis asks whether the neighborhood social environment – in addition to the built environment – influences children’s decision to walk to school in Alameda County, California. The results show that social factors, particularly neighborhood cohesion, do influence the decision to walk particularly when children face trips of less than 1.6 km. These findings provide initial evidence for transportation analysts to broaden their definition of the environment to include social factors.