Residential Location Choice Research Articles

Mapping public transport accessibility levels (PTAL) in India and its applications: A case study of Surat

Rapid urbanisation is a key factor in making public urban infrastructure systems in developing countries overstressed. A public transport system of a city is one of its vital urban infrastructure systems. Good public transport enhances connectivity and mobility, especially for lower income groups making them better participate in the labour market, eventually fostering economic growth and social equity. Therefore, it is important in cities of developing countries to ensure the best possible public transport system given the limited availability of resources.One of the ways to enhance a public transport system is to improve its accessibility with regard to population distribution. The first step is to measure the level of accessibility offered by the current system. Public Transport Accessibility Level (PTAL) is a tool to measure accessibility at various location in a city and spatially visualise it. A case study of Surat, India is used to implement the PTAL. Surat PTAL maps are created for a base year (2016) and future year (2021), superimposed with population density, and compared with Ahmedabad city. PTAL maps could be useful in several ways. Key applications and lessons for planners include guiding future public transport investments, enhancing the urban plan-making process by integrating transport and land use decisions, better informing the parking policy, improving residential location choice, optimising supply locations of affordable and low-cost housing, and better understanding the mobility needs of the urban poor.

The influence of the image of a place on residential location choice

The influence of the image of a place on residential location choice

Residential location choice in a developing country: What matter? A choice experiment application in Burkina Faso

This paper assesses the benefits derived from environmental amenities, and more specifically from an urban park, from data on residential location choices. Household decisions regarding their residential location have important implications for urban planning. This paper uses a choice experiment pivot design (CE) to empirically analyze the trade-off between location attributes such as distance to an urban park and distance to workplace in the context of a developing country in which environmental questions are generally considered of lower priority. The limitation of transportation and communication networks suggests that the “tyranny of distance” is even more significant in this particular context than in larger cities located in more developed countries. Results show that inhabitants are willing to pay more in order to live close to an urban park than to their workplace. Furthermore, I find that preferences are heterogeneous and that the attribute corresponding to the presence of relatives in the area is associated with the highest willingness to pay.

Investigation for Location Preferences of MIG Household in West Zone of Surat City

Urbanization growth in India is increasing rapidly and people migrate to the well- developed area of city for various basis. “Residential Location Preferences” refers to, how location of a house of a particular class of people gets determined by their social, economic aspects and also by potential of particular area chosen for residence. Residential location is one of the driving forces of urban dynamics. The residential location choice process has been studied for several decades using different approaches which in general shows that many factors contribute to the choice of a given location as characteristics of city infrastructure, transportation facilities, housing unit, social and environmental amenities, access to jobs, services and other economic opportunities. Urban citizens intend to live surrounding their work locations and city centre. The assessment of these ward locational preferences is done by developing the Weighted Sum Model (WSM). Study represents locational preferences of residence from MIG-1 and MIG -2 categories of residents in west zone of Surat city.

Urban redevelopment and residential location choice: Evidence from a major earthquake in Japan

AbstractWe examine residential location choice behavior in a metropolitan area of Japan that experienced seismic damage. We find that the internal structure of the affected area was reshaped, although, in the long term, its total population size was robust to this temporary shock. Before the earthquake, the population was evolving toward a state of equilibrium with dense locations in the core facing redevelopment barriers and, therefore, stagnation. In contrast, the periphery was becoming increasingly appealing and thus growing. Seismic damage allowed for redevelopment at higher density, making the adjusted equilibrium with dense locations grow again. In summary, the initially expanding periphery stagnated as an unintended consequence of urban redevelopment.

Travel-based residential self-selection: A qualitatively improved understanding from Norway

By integrating both quantitative and qualitative materials, this paper sheds new light on the role of travel-based residential preferences in residential location choice and the implications for land-use and travel behavior research. In the two Norwegian metropolitan areas of Oslo and Stavanger, movers who select their residence based on travel attitudes relocate to inner-city districts but not to suburban areas. For those who move to suburban areas, criteria other than travel are more important. Residential self-selection toward transit-rich neighborhoods is more prominent in the large, monocentric Oslo region than in the smaller, polycentric Stavanger metropolitan area where transit provision is generally poorer. Travel-based residential self-selection may affect the effect estimates of built environment characteristics somewhat for travel mode choice, less so for travel distance in general, and hardly at all for commuting distance. Overall, there is no strong empirical basis in support of controlling for travel-based residential self-selection in land-use and travel behavior research in a Norwegian urban context. Built environment characteristics exert substantial impacts on intra-metropolitan travel distances and modes, regardless of residential self-selection.

A Psychological Perspective to Influence of Local Products on Choice of Residential Location

A Psychological Perspective to Influence of Local Products on Choice of Residential Location

An environment-people interactions framework for analysing children's extra-curricular activities and active transport

In this paper, the focus is on examining children's extra-curricular activities in a high density urban East Asian environment, specifically Hong Kong. The paper offers a framework to understand children's extra-curricular activities time allocation and active travel participation. Three variables of interest are considered: residential location choice (based on residential density), weekly time spent in four different types of out-of-home after-school activities (academic, sports, arts, and other), and level of active travel. The proposed model takes into account common observed and unobserved effects that can be affecting the three outcomes simultaneously. Overall, the findings, based on survey data collected at four primary schools between November 2015 and June 2016 in Hong Kong, show that children's activity and travel behaviour within the same city can differ quite substantially based on neighbourhood environment (notably residential density) and family socio-demographic background. The empirical findings and analysis provide insights for policy development, including those related to (a) targeting children's extra-curricular activity participation for underprivileged groups, (b) promoting work-friendly policies that enable parents to spend more time and participate in more activities together with their children, as well as (c) promoting mixed use and compact development to encourage a more active lifestyle for children and parents alike.

Understanding Migration Aversion Using Elicited Counterfactual Choice Probabilities

Residential mobility rates in the United States have fallen considerably over the past three decades. The cause of the long-term decline remains largely unexplained. In this paper we investigate the relative importance of alternative drivers of residential mobility, including job opportunities, neighborhood and housing amenities, social networks, and housing and moving costs, using data from two waves of the New York Fed’s Survey of Consumer Expectations. Our hypothetical choice methodology elicits choice probabilities from which we recover the distribution of preferences for location and mobility attributes without concerns about omitted variables and selection biases that hamper analyses based on observed mobility choices alone. We estimate substantial heterogeneity in the willingness to pay (WTP) for location and housing amenities across different demographic groups, with income considerations, proximity to friends and family, neighbors’ shared norms and social values, and monetary and psychological costs of moving being key drivers of migration and residential location choices. The estimates point to potentially important amplifying roles played by family, friends, and shared norms and values in the decline of residential mobility rates.

Understanding Migration Aversion Using Elicited Counterfactual Choice Probabilities

Residential mobility rates in the U.S. have fallen considerably over the past three decades. The cause of the long-term decline remains largely unexplained. In this paper we investigate the relative importance of alternative drivers of residential mobility, including job opportunities, neighborhood and housing amenities, social networks and housing and moving costs, using data from two waves of the NY Fed’s Survey of Consumer Expectations. Our hypothetical choice methodology elicits choice probabilities from which we recover the distribution of preferences for location and mobility attributes without concerns about omitted variables and selection biases that hamper analyses based on observed mobility choices alone. We estimate substantial heterogeneity in the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for location and housing amenities across different demographic groups, with income considerations, proximity to friends and family, neighbors’ shared norms and social values, and monetary and psychological costs of moving being key drivers of migration and residential location choices. The estimates point to potentially important amplifying roles played by family, friends, and shared norms and values in the decline of residential mobility rates.

Automated Vehicles – Game Changer For Urban Mode Choice?

The progressive automation in traffic up to the introduction of automated driving vehicles and associated new mobility services is capable of disrupting existing transport systems and is expected to have a significant impact on travel behavior, mode choice, car ownership and in the long run on residential location choice (e.g. Chapin et al., 2016; Milakis et al., 2017). Mobility needs, the resulting traffic as well as the physical shape of urban space are in close correlation (Cervero & Kockelmann, 1997). The city structure with its built environment and the location of residential and activity locations forms the basis for mobility decisions of households and companies and has a significant influence on the design of traffic (Heinrichs, 2015) as a compact urban structure with a high density and mix of uses promotes short distances, the use of active transport modes like walking or cycling, and provides a Basis for public transport through concentrated traffic demand. In return, the availability and use of transport means can influence the urban structure (e.g. Apel, 2003; Steierwald, 2005). Therefore it is expected, that the availability of automated vehicles will have an impact on traffic demand patterns and the built environment with the greatest impact expected on the highest level of automation, where the system can autonomously manage all aspects of driving the vehicle (Kornhauser, 2014). However, both the expected usage as well as the spatial impact are yet highly uncertain (Heinrichs & Cyganski, 2015) and will depend heavily on a variety of factors. Besides the level of automation and the share of such vehicles in the total stock, the regional context, the perception of these vehicles and the newly offered transport options, changes in travel time and their perception as well as user preferences in general are sure to play a crucial role when it comes to analyzing prospect changes (Fraedrich & Lenz, 2016). Recent studies on mode choices in the present of autonomous driving considering geographical characteristics suggest differences in the perception of the autonomous vehicle concepts depending on geographical context (Fraedrich et al., 2016).

Weekday trip patterns of students in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Data used were obtained from Obafemi Awolowo University Annual Report publication, questionnaire administration and interview on socioeconomic characteristics of off-campus resident students; travel characteristics and mobility pattern; perception on the availability of transport infrastructure as well as factors that determine the decision to reside off-campus. Results showed two main types of mobility patterns, viz: unidirectional (89.8%) and bidirectional (10.2%) movements. An average student spends between ₦31 and ₦175 (US$ 0.09 and US$ 0.48); and between 15 and 30 minutes, daily from their residence to the university. Gender, amount paid on house rent, family house ownership, and source of income were the main factors determining the choice of residential location among students. Proximity to bus stops and/or junctions, quick and easy access to motorcycles and buses, and nearness to park or garage were the most important factors that influence accommodation location choices among the off-campus resident students. The study concluded that transport infrastructure influenced the residential location decisions among off-campus resident students in the study area.

RESIDENTIAL PREFERENCES IN RESIDENTIAL LOCATION CHOICE

Residential mobility attempts to address problems on households' life adjustments or the mismatch between residents' present needs and housing consumption. The desired preferences of each household may be complex to determine, but the trends or preferences in a residential area can be captured. Residential location choice stimulates residential mobility decision on the selection of a particular area. This study aims to identify residential preferences on relocation using a selected sample of 323 households in Penang who intend to move in the near future. Results show that residents prefer to move to other states than Penang. Therefore, determining residential preferences is necessary to develop corresponding housing policies.

The social aspect of residential location choice: on the trade-off between proximity to social contacts and commuting

Commuting has been found to be one of the least enjoyable activities. As it is a consequence of the choice of home and work location, the question arises as to how its disutility is compensated. Urban location theory suggests a compensation in the housing or the labor market. While this provides part of the explanation, individuals' personal networks may provide additional insights.Data from a social network survey were used to investigate proximity to social contacts as a factor in residential location choice.The results indicated that proximity to social contacts was an important factor and that it was traded off against commute time. The notion that the disutility of commuting is not compensated for may be a consequence of ignoring the effect of personal networks.The results contribute to the understanding of residential location choice and have implications for urban planning and policies that seek to reduce commuting.

The role of neighbourhoods accessibility in residential mobility

Household decisions to move from or stay at a current location may be based on a great number of variables. There has been substantial discussion among planners about the effect of the built environment in the choice of residential location. However, there is limited research on the role of non-motorised accessibility on residential location. Households may base their decision to move from or stay at a current location on the neighbourhood's accessibility. The public transport accessibility, walkability and bikeability of a neighbourhood may affect residents' decisions to stay or move from their current location. The focus of this paper is on modelling and comparing the influence of non-motorised accessibility measures on the number of years that households stay at their current location. The paper addresses this issue by employing three non-motorised accessibility measures in separate ordered logistic regression (OLR) models. Focusing on metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, the Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity (VISTA, 2012) was adopted to model years of residency incorporating socio-economic characteristics, built environment features and accessibility measures. Key findings indicate that non-motorised accessibility has statistically-significant impacts on the number of years that residents live at their current address. Furthermore, of the accessibility measures, access to public transport has the greatest impact.

Assessing the Intersection of Neighborhood Change and Residential Mobility Pathways for the Chicago Metropolitan Area (2006–2015)

ABSTRACTResidential mobility processes remain largely a black box for housing policy researchers. Whereas neighborhood sociodemographic indicators provide insight into the types of push and pull factors that are associated with residential mobility, connecting the behavior of individual households to patterns of neighborhood change remains a challenge. At the same time, displacement and replacement are core tenets of theorized neighborhood change processes. Using household-level longitudinal data on residential location choice for Cook County, Illinois, this article connects residential mobility flows to origin and destination neighborhood change trajectories. This approach highlights the ways in which income plays an important role in mediating flows between neighborhood change types, as well as the neighborhood change dynamics experienced by nonmovers. Findings from this work are particularly important for engaging with longstanding housing policy concerns—namely, how to balance organic processes of neighborhood change with the need for stability.

Does the accessibility measure influence the results of residential location choice modelling?

Accessibility is essential in land-use transport interaction frameworks. For residential location choices in particular, it has always been important at the theoretical level. At the empirical level, the place of accessibility is questioned in some works, considering other more important location characteristics, like the social environment and the neighbourhood amenities. However, this result can be caused by the measurement of accessibility. In view of the wealth of approaches, this paper examines whether different accessibility measures can lead to divergent results. Using a residential location choice model for the Lyon urban area in France, we test various accessibility indicators and we compare the results. We conclude that accessibility is an indispensable variable. Without it, the model gives inconsistent results. Complex accessibility measures give better results but simple measures are also relevant for residential location choices modelling. The choice highly depends on the objectives of the application especially if the model is to be used for simulation.

Commuting and Land Use in a City with Bottlenecks: Theory and Evidence

This paper studies the interaction between urban spatial equilibrium and commuting congestion dynamics. We present a new monocentric city framework that combines a discrete urban space with multiple Vickrey (1969)-type bottlenecks. The model illustrates commute scheduling patterns by residents at different locations in the city. We confirm empirically the relationship between residential location and commute timing choices predicted by the model. In particular, we find that commuters traveling a longer distance tend to arrive at work at the edge of the morning peak time while commuters with a shorter distance tend to arrive at the peak time. The paper also characterizes the optimal policy of congestion toll and analyzes its impact on urban spatial structure.

Residential self-selection in the built environment-travel behavior connection: Whose self-selection?

Residential self-selection has been acknowledged as a key issue underlining the link between the built environment and travel behavior. Existing studies often implicitly assume that residential choice is a decision of an individual and the influence of intra-household interactions is not considered. In reality, residential choice is a decision often made at the household-level involving more than one household members. Similarly, car ownership is usually a household-level decision incorporating views of different household members. In both cases, the travel related attitudes of more than one household members may play a role in the decision making. In other words, there is an issue concerning residential self-selection (similarly car ownership self-selection): whose self-selection? This paper makes an attempt to probe into this question by examining the self-selection issues concerning residential location choice and car ownership decision from the perspective of households, by incorporating the travel attitudes and travel behaviors of two household heads into an integrated self-selection framework. Data are derived from a household sample survey involving two-day activity-travel diaries conducted in 2016 in Beijing, China. Multivariate modeling results show that household members play different roles in household decisions with travel implications: in general husbands’ travel attitudes have relatively more influence in residential choice and car ownership decision than wives’. Nevertheless, wives’ travel attitudes have more power than husbands’ in explaining the commuting distances of both husbands and wives. Some distinct features of the residential and car ownership self-selections in the Chinese context are also identified and discussed in this paper.

Towards happy and healthy travellers: A research agenda

Well-being and health are two important elements contributing to people's quality of life. Although well-being and health have been analysed for many decades, an increased attention since the beginning of this century can be noticed, partly due to new ways of measuring people's subjective well-being and the rapid growth of obesity and obesity-related diseases. Over the past ten years studies have started analysing the link between travel and well-being, mainly focussing on aspects explaining people's satisfaction with travel. However, the role of travel satisfaction has not yet been fully explored, as it can also impact people's travel attitudes, travel behaviour and residential location choice. Previous studies on travel and health have mainly focussed on traffic safety, air pollution and recently also on physical activity. These studies have indicated that physical activity − and as a result overall health levels − are affected by people's residential neighbourhood and travel behaviour (e.g., mode choice). However, a clear picture on how physical activity, the built environment, attitudes and travel behaviour are linked to each other is missing. Furthermore, it is also possible that physical activity obtained by travel (e.g., by walking or cycling) can affect people's well-being and satisfaction with travel. In this paper, a research agenda aiming at a better understanding of the links between well-being, health and travel behaviour is presented. Three objectives can be distinguished: (i) the role of travel satisfaction in explaining travel behaviour, travel attitudes and residential location (choice), (ii) creating new insights into the link between travel and health, and (iii) linking well-being and health in a travel-behaviour context.