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Compact development and VMT—Environmental determinism, self-selection, or some of both?

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  • Reid Ewing
  • Shima Hamidi
  • James B Grace

Abstract

There is a long-running debate in the planning literature about the effects of the built environment on travel behavior and the degree to which apparent effects are due to the tendency of households to self-select into neighborhoods that reinforce their travel preferences. Those who want to walk will choose walkable neighborhoods, and those who want to use transit will choose transit-served neighborhoods. These households might have walked or used transit more than their neighbors wherever they lived. Most previous studies have shown that individual attitudes attenuate the relationship between the residential environment and travel choices, and so the effect of the built environment on travel may be overestimated. But there are other researchers who argue the reverse, claiming that residential preferences reinforce built environmental influences. This study assesses the relative importance of the built environment and residential preferences/travel attitudes for a sample of 962 households in the Greater Salt Lake region using structural equation modeling. For the sake of simplicity, we extracted two factors using principal component analysis, one representing the built environment and the other representing residential preferences/attitudes. Our findings are consistent with the view that the neighborhood built environment and residential preferences both influence household’s travel, that the built environment is the stronger influence, and that the built environment affects travel through two causal pathways, one direct and the other indirect, through attitudes.

Suggested Citation

  • Reid Ewing & Shima Hamidi & James B Grace, 2016. "Compact development and VMT—Environmental determinism, self-selection, or some of both?," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 43(4), pages 737-755, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:43:y:2016:i:4:p:737-755
    DOI: 10.1177/0265813515594811
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Roya Etminani-Ghasrodashti & Shima Hamidi, 2019. "Individuals’ Demand for Ride-hailing Services: Investigating the Combined Effects of Attitudinal Factors, Land Use, and Travel Attributes on Demand for App-based Taxis in Tehran, Iran," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-19, October.
    3. Lin, Tao & Wang, Donggen & Guan, Xiaodong, 2017. "The built environment, travel attitude, and travel behavior: Residential self-selection or residential determination?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 111-122.
    4. Arranz-López, Aldo & Soria-Lara, Julio A & López-Escolano, Carlos & Pueyo Campos, Ángel, 2017. "Retail Mobility Environments: A methodological framework for integrating retail activity and non-motorised accessibility in Zaragoza, Spain," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 92-103.
    5. De Vos, Jonas & Ettema, Dick & Witlox, Frank, 2018. "Changing travel behaviour and attitudes following a residential relocation," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 131-147.
    6. van Wee, Bert & De Vos, Jonas & Maat, Kees, 2019. "Impacts of the built environment and travel behaviour on attitudes: Theories underpinning the reverse causality hypothesis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

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