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What do residential lotteries show us about transportation choices?

Author

Listed:
  • Adam Millard-Ball

    (University of California Los Angeles, USA)

  • Jeremy West

    (University of California Santa Cruz, USA)

  • Nazanin Rezaei

    (University of California Santa Cruz, USA)

  • Garima Desai

    (University of California Santa Cruz, USA)

Abstract

Credibly identifying how the built environment shapes behaviour is empirically challenging, because people select residential locations based on differing constraints and preferences for site amenities. Our study overcomes these research barriers by leveraging San Francisco’s affordable housing lotteries, which randomly allow specific households to move to specific residences. Using administrative data, we demonstrate that lottery-winning households’ baseline preferences are uncorrelated with their allotted residential features such as public transportation accessibility, parking availability and bicycle infrastructure – meaning that neighbourhood attributes and a building’s parking supply are effectively assigned at random. Surveying the households, we find that these attributes significantly affect transportation mode choices. Most notably, we show that essentially random variation in on-site parking availability greatly changes households’ car ownership decisions and driving frequency, with substitution away from public transport. In contrast, we find that parking availability does not affect employment or job mobility. Overall, the evidence from our study robustly supports that local features of the built environment are important determinants of transportation behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Millard-Ball & Jeremy West & Nazanin Rezaei & Garima Desai, 2022. "What do residential lotteries show us about transportation choices?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(2), pages 434-452, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:59:y:2022:i:2:p:434-452
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098021995139
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    3. Bhat, Chandra R. & Mondal, Aupal, 2022. "A New Flexible Generalized Heterogeneous Data Model (GHDM) with an Application to Examine the Effect of High Density Neighborhood Living on Bicycling Frequency," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 244-266.
    4. Moran, Marcel E, 2023. "Authorized Vehicles Only: Police, parking, and pedestrian access in New York City," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt2f7608c2, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    5. Hudde, Ansgar, 2023. "Have Cycling-Friendly Cities Achieved Cycling Equity? Analyses of the Educational Gradient in Cycling in Dutch and German Cities," SocArXiv 7c6d2, Center for Open Science.
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