Assessing the Impact of the Built Environment on Travel Behavior: A Case Study of Buffalo, New York

This study uses a post-processing approach to assess the impact of the built environment on travel behavior for the Buffalo, New York area. Travel behavior was quantified in three ways: daily home-based vehicle hours of travel (VHT) per household; daily home-based vehicle miles of travel (VMT) per household; and mode choice. Iterative testing and refinement of variables based on a variety of data sources was used to characterize the built environment. Linear regression was then used to create models that related variability in travel behavior to the built environment. The resulting models can be to travel models to provide some measure of sensitivity to built environment modifications. Results show that mode choice is highly correlated to measures of the built environment, especially those related to design or density. Home-based VHT and VMT appear to be affected by the built environment to a lesser degree. These findings indicate that many smart growth principles, such as mixed-use land development, can encourage non-motorized travel.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-011-9337-x
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00494488
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper originally was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in January 2011.
• Authors:
  • Tracy, Andrew J
  • Su, Peng
  • Sadek, Adel W
  • Wang, Qian
• Publication Date: 2011-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 663-678
• Serial:
  • Transportation
  • Volume: 38
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: Springer
  • ISSN: 0049-4488
  • EISSN: 1572-9435
  • Serial URL: http://link.springer.com/journal/11116

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Built environment; Case studies; Choice models; Land use; Linear regression analysis; Mode choice; Smart growth; Travel behavior; Vehicle miles of travel
• Uncontrolled Terms: Postprocessing; Vehicle hours of travel
• Geographic Terms: Buffalo (New York)
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General); I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01355079
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, ATRI
• Created Date: Oct 25 2011 11:46AM