IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v6y2014i2p589-601d32476.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the Role of Built Environment in Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled Accounting for Spatial Heterogeneity

Author

Listed:
  • Chuan Ding

    (Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Urban Planning and Decision Making Simulation, Shenzhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China)

  • Yaowu Wang

    (Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Urban Planning and Decision Making Simulation, Shenzhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China)

  • Binglei Xie

    (Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Urban Planning and Decision Making Simulation, Shenzhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China)

  • Chao Liu

    (National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA)

Abstract

In recent years, increasing concerns over climate change and transportation energy consumption have sparked research into the influences of urban form and land use patterns on motorized travel, notably vehicle miles traveled (VMT). However, empirical studies provide mixed evidence of the influence of the built environment on travel. In particular, the role of density after controlling for the confounding factors (e.g., land use mix, average block size, and distance from CBD) still remains unclear. The object of this study is twofold. First, this research provides additional insights into the effects of built environment factors on the work-related VMT, considering urban form measurements at both the home location and workplace simultaneously. Second, a cross-classified multilevel model using Bayesian approach is applied to account for the spatial heterogeneity across spatial units. Using Washington DC as our study area, the home-based work tour in the AM peak hours is used as the analysis unit. Estimation results confirmed the important role that the built environment at both home and workplace plays in affecting work-related VMT. In particular, the results reveal that densities at the workplace have more important roles than that at home location. These findings confirm that urban planning and city design should be part of the solution in stabilizing global climate and energy consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Chuan Ding & Yaowu Wang & Binglei Xie & Chao Liu, 2014. "Understanding the Role of Built Environment in Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled Accounting for Spatial Heterogeneity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-13, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:2:p:589-601:d:32476
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/2/589/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/2/589/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bhat, Chandra R., 2000. "A multi-level cross-classified model for discrete response variables," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 567-582, September.
    2. Kevin Krizek, 2003. "Neighborhood services, trip purpose, and tour-based travel," Transportation, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 387-410, November.
    3. Mokhtarian, Patricia L & Cao, Xinyu, 2008. "Examining the impacts of residential self-selection on travel behavior: A focus on methodologies," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt8bz3z5qm, University of California Transportation Center.
    4. Reid Ewing & Robert Cervero, 2010. "Travel and the Built Environment," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(3), pages 265-294.
    5. Mokhtarian, Patricia L. & Cao, Xinyu, 2008. "Examining the impacts of residential self-selection on travel behavior: A focus on methodologies," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 204-228, March.
    6. Cynthia Chen & Hongmian Gong & Robert Paaswell, 2008. "Role of the built environment on mode choice decisions: additional evidence on the impact of density," Transportation, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 285-299, May.
    7. Zhang, Lei & Hong, Jin Hyun & Nasri, Arefeh & Shen, Qing, 2012. "How built environment affects travel behavior: A comparative analysis of the connections between land use and vehicle miles traveled in US cities," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 5(3), pages 40-52.
    8. Kevin Manaugh & Luis Miranda-Moreno & Ahmed El-Geneidy, 2010. "The effect of neighbourhood characteristics, accessibility, home–work location, and demographics on commuting distances," Transportation, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 627-646, July.
    9. Konstadinos Goulias, 2002. "Multilevel analysis of daily time use and time allocation to activity types accounting for complex covariance structures using correlated random effects," Transportation, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 31-48, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Charreire, H. & Roda, C. & Feuillet, T. & Piombini, A. & Bardos, H. & Rutter, H. & Compernolle, S. & Mackenbach, J.D. & Lakerveld, J. & Oppert, J.M., 2021. "Walking, cycling, and public transport for commuting and non-commuting travels across 5 European urban regions: Modal choice correlates and motivations," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    2. He, Mingwei & He, Chengfeng & Shi, Zhuangbin & He, Min, 2022. "Spatiotemporal heterogeneous effects of socio-demographic and built environment on private car usage: An empirical study of Kunming, China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    3. Yuhei Ito & Malcolm Morgan & Robin Lovelace, 2023. "Where to invest in cycle parking: A portfolio management approach to spatial transport planning," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(6), pages 1438-1454, July.
    4. Xiaoquan Wang & Chunfu Shao & Chaoying Yin & Chengxiang Zhuge & Wenjun Li, 2018. "Application of Bayesian Multilevel Models Using Small and Medium Size City in China: The Case of Changchun," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-15, February.
    5. Iwata, Kazuyuki & Managi, Shunsuke, 2015. "Can Land Use Regulations and Taxes Help Mitigate Vehicular CO2 emissions?: An Empirical Study of Japanese Cities," MPRA Paper 66435, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Guanwei Zhao & Zeyu Pan & Muzhuang Yang, 2022. "Marginal Effects and Spatial Variations of the Impact of the Built Environment on Taxis’ Pollutant Emissions in Chengdu, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-19, December.
    7. Caiyun Qian & Yang Zhou & Ze Ji & Qing Feng, 2018. "The Influence of the Built Environment of Neighborhoods on Residents’ Low-Carbon Travel Mode," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-26, March.
    8. Eeva-Sofia Säynäjoki & Jukka Heinonen & Seppo Junnila, 2014. "The Power of Urban Planning on Environmental Sustainability: A Focus Group Study in Finland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-22, September.
    9. Changlong Sun & Yongli Zhang & Wenwen Ma & Rong Wu & Shaojian Wang, 2022. "The Impacts of Urban Form on Carbon Emissions: A Comprehensive Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-20, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ding, Chuan & Wang, Donggen & Liu, Chao & Zhang, Yi & Yang, Jiawen, 2017. "Exploring the influence of built environment on travel mode choice considering the mediating effects of car ownership and travel distance," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 65-80.
    2. Faizeh Hatami & Jean-Claude Thill, 2022. "Spatiotemporal Evaluation of the Built Environment’s Impact on Commuting Duration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-19, June.
    3. Zhang, Lei & Hong, Jin Hyun & Nasri, Arefeh & Shen, Qing, 2012. "How built environment affects travel behavior: A comparative analysis of the connections between land use and vehicle miles traveled in US cities," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 5(3), pages 40-52.
    4. Ding, Chuan & Cao, Xinyu, 2019. "How does the built environment at residential and work locations affect car ownership? An application of cross-classified multilevel model," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 37-45.
    5. Li, Jingjing & Kim, Changjoo & Sang, Sunhee, 2018. "Exploring impacts of land use characteristics in residential neighborhood and activity space on non-work travel behaviors," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 141-147.
    6. Shen, Qing & Chen, Peng & Pan, Haixiao, 2016. "Factors affecting car ownership and mode choice in rail transit-supported suburbs of a large Chinese city," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 31-44.
    7. Islam, Md Rabiul & Saphores, Jean-Daniel M., 2022. "An L.A. story: The impact of housing costs on commuting," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    8. Mitra, Suman & Yao, Mingqi & Ritchie, Stephen G., 2021. "Gender differences in elderly mobility in the United States," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 203-226.
    9. Janke, Julia, 2021. "Re-visiting residential self-selection and dissonance: Does intra-household decision-making change the results?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 379-401.
    10. Dillon, Harya S. & Saphores, Jean-Daniel & Boarnet, Marlon G., 2015. "The impact of urban form and gasoline prices on vehicle usage: Evidence from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 23-33.
    11. Tufayel Chowdhury & Darren M. Scott, 2020. "Role of the built environment on trip-chaining behavior: an investigation of workers and non-workers in Halifax, Nova Scotia," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 737-761, April.
    12. Bhat, Chandra R. & Astroza, Sebastian & Bhat, Aarti C. & Nagel, Kai, 2016. "Incorporating a multiple discrete-continuous outcome in the generalized heterogeneous data model: Application to residential self-selection effects analysis in an activity time-use behavior model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 52-76.
    13. Arefeh Nasri & Carlos Carrion & Lei Zhang & Babak Baghaei, 2020. "Using propensity score matching technique to address self-selection in transit-oriented development (TOD) areas," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 359-371, February.
    14. Mitra, Suman K. & Saphores, Jean-Daniel M., 2019. "Why do they live so far from work? Determinants of long-distance commuting in California," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    15. Chowdhury, Tufayel & Scott, Darren M., 2020. "An analysis of the built environment and auto travel in Halifax, Canada," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 23-33.
    16. Jinhyun Hong & Qing Shen & Lei Zhang, 2014. "How do built-environment factors affect travel behavior? A spatial analysis at different geographic scales," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 419-440, May.
    17. Su, Qing & Zhou, Liren, 2012. "Parking management, financial subsidies to alternatives to drive alone and commute mode choices in Seattle," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 88-97.
    18. Van Acker, Veronique & Ho, Loan & Stevens, Larissa & Mulley, Corinne, 2020. "Quantifying the effects of childhood and previous residential experiences on the use of public transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    19. Ding, Yu & Lu, Huapu, 2016. "Activity participation as a mediating variable to analyze the effect of land use on travel behavior: A structural equation modeling approach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 23-28.
    20. Chetan Doddamani & M. Manoj, 2023. "Analysis of the influences of built environment measures on household car and motorcycle ownership decisions in Hubli-Dharwad cities," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 205-243, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:2:p:589-601:d:32476. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.