Geographical scale of residential relocation and its impacts on vehicle ownership and travel behavior

This paper investigates the geographical scale of residential mobility and its impacts on household vehicle ownership and commute mode choice decisions in Hubli-Dharwad twin cities. We have identified three geographic scales of residential mobility – within wards, between wards, and between cities. The descriptive and statistical analyses reveal that households that moved between cities and those moved between wards added more cars post-relocation. Further, households that moved within wards exhibited a higher likelihood of adding the first motorized two-wheeler and increasing their two-wheeler fleet to two. Notably, families that moved within or between wards are observed to increase their two-wheeler fleet from holding two vehicles at their previous home location. Households that moved between cities switched to public transit from private mode use at the previous residential location. The residential mobility model suggests that household heads holding a postgraduate degree and above are more likely to relocate between the cities and less likely to relocate between wards. Households that moved between wards are more likely to switch to motorized two-wheelers for work travel than the households that moved within cities, as implied by the mode choice model. Between-cities movements encourage vehicle relinquishment, as suggested by the statistical model. The study also shows that an increase in land use mix diversity of residential wards decreases households' tendency to procure additional vehicles and encourages personal vehicles' relinquishment.