Examining the effect of land-use mix on active transportation: the role of the size and spatial scale of census units

Research suggests that the size of census units may bias results when researchers are examining the relationship between land-use mix and active transportation and it is also widely recognized that spatially aggregated measures of urban form are sensitive to geographical scale. This study seeks to examine the influence of the geographical size and scale of census units on the relationship between land-use mix and active transportation to work. It distinguishes itself from previous research by correcting residence and workplace land-use mix measures for the size of census units using units of several geographical scales (blocks, block groups, and tracts). Area correction had the consistent effect of increasing the size of the OR at all scales of analysis, however the size and significance of the land-use mix OR varied with geographical scale for both original and area corrected land-use mix. Significant positive relationships were found for area corrected residential and workplace tract land-use mix. These findings emphasize the importance of taking into account both the size and scale of geographical units when measuring land-use mix.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB50 Standing Committee on Transportation Planning Applications.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Board

    500 Fifth Street, NW
    Washington, DC  United States  20001
  • Authors:
    • Steinmetz-Wood, Madeleine
    • Kestens, Yan
    • Lebel, Alexandre
    • Subramanian, Subu
    • Srinivasan, Sumeeta
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2017

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 18p
  • Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01623056
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 17-01590
  • Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Jan 24 2017 3:15PM