IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v141y2019i1d10.1007_s11205-017-1829-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quality of Life, Multimodality, and the Demise of the Autocentric Metropolis: A Multivariate Analysis of 148 Mid-Size U.S. Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Craig A. Talmage

    (Hobart and William Smith Colleges)

  • Chad Frederick

    (University of Louisville)

Abstract

Quality of life has recently gained prominence in the urban affairs, development, and planning debates. A wide-range of factors have been linked to quality of life, including environmental health, commute times, arts and cultural amenities, school quality, housing availability, and economic concerns. The accessibility inherent in multimodal transportation is critical in the functioning of metropolitan areas. What has not been explored is the association between multimodal transportation and urban quality of life. In this paper, we adapt the method of urban sociologists, Harvey Molotch and Richard Appelbaum, to explore the association between multimodality and 12 measures of quality of life. We analyze 148 cities in the United States with populations over 50,000 that are more than 20 miles from other similarly sized cities. Our test measure is the percentage of workers who commute by some means other than a single-occupant vehicle. Using bivariate and multivariate analysis, this study shows a higher quality of life in counties and metropolitan areas with higher levels of multimodal commuting. These findings underscore the positive impact of sustainable transportation policies on quality of life and opens up new directions for research and policy in the built environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Craig A. Talmage & Chad Frederick, 2019. "Quality of Life, Multimodality, and the Demise of the Autocentric Metropolis: A Multivariate Analysis of 148 Mid-Size U.S. Cities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 365-390, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:141:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-017-1829-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-017-1829-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-017-1829-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-017-1829-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abou-Zeid, Maya & Ben-Akiva, Moshe, 2011. "The effect of social comparisons on commute well-being," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 345-361, May.
    2. James Wallace & Nelarine Cornelius, 2010. "Community Development and Social Regeneration: How the Third Sector Addresses the Needs of BME Communities in Post-Industrial Cities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 43-54, December.
    3. M. Joseph Sirgy & Alex C. Michalos & Abbott L. Ferriss & Richard A. Easterlin & Donald Patrick & William Pavot, 2006. "The Quality-of-Life (QOL) Research Movement: Past, Present, and Future," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 76(3), pages 343-466, May.
    4. M. Sirgy & Alex Michalos & Abbott Ferriss & Richard Easterlin & Donald Patrick & William Pavot, 2006. "The Qualityity-of-Life (QOL) Research Movement: Past, Present, and Future," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 76(3), pages 343-466, May.
    5. A.A.J. Nederveen & J.W. Konings & J.A. Stoop, 2003. "Globalization, international transport and the global environment: Technological innovation, policy making and the reduction of transportation emissions," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 41-67, February.
    6. Leena Eklund Karlsson & Kristine Crondahl & Fredrik Sunnemark & Åsa Andersson, 2013. "The Meaning of Health, Well-Being, and Quality of Life Perceived by Roma People in West Sweden," Societies, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-18, June.
    7. Frank Goetzke & Tilmann Rave, 2015. "Automobile access, peer effects and happiness," Transportation, Springer, vol. 42(5), pages 791-805, September.
    8. Redmond, Lothlorien S. & Mokhtarian, Patricia L., 2001. "The Positive Utility of the Commute: Modeling Ideal Commute Time and Relative Desired Commute Amount," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt4mc291p2, University of California Transportation Center.
    9. Mizuki Kawabata & Qing Shen, 2006. "Job Accessibility as an Indicator of Auto-Oriented Urban Structure: A Comparison of Boston and Los Angeles with Tokyo," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 33(1), pages 115-130, February.
    10. Robert Cervero & Jin Murakami, 2010. "Effects of Built Environments on Vehicle Miles Traveled: Evidence from 370 US Urbanized Areas," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(2), pages 400-418, February.
    11. M. Sirgy & Terri Cornwell, 2001. "Further Validation of the Sirgy et al.'s Measure of Community Quality of Life," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 125-143, November.
    12. Angrist, Shirley S. & Belkin, Jacob & Wallace, William A., 1976. "Social indicators and urban policy analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 193-198.
    13. Frei, Charlotte & Mahmassani, Hani S. & Frei, Andreas, 2015. "Making time count: Traveler activity engagement on urban transit," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 58-70.
    14. John Stehlin, 2015. "Cycles of Investment: Bicycle Infrastructure, Gentrification, and the Restructuring of the San Francisco Bay Area," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(1), pages 121-137, January.
    15. Noland, Robert B. & Quddus, Mohammed A., 2005. "Congestion and safety: A spatial analysis of London," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 39(7-9), pages 737-754.
    16. Paul Knox, 1980. "Measures of accessibility as social indicators: A note," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 367-377, January.
    17. Pucher, J. & Buehler, R. & Bassett, D.R. & Dannenberg, A.L., 2010. "Walking and cycling to health: A comparative analysis of city, state, and international data," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(10), pages 1986-1992.
    18. Diez Roux, A.V., 2001. "Investigating neighborhood and area effects on health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(11), pages 1783-1789.
    19. Luís Carvalho & Giuliano Mingardo & Jeroen Van Haaren, 2011. "Green Urban Transport Policies and Cleantech Innovations: Evidence from Curitiba, Göteborg and Hamburg," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 375-396, February.
    20. Luca Bertolini & Frank le Clercq, 2003. "Urban Development without more Mobility by Car? Lessons from Amsterdam, a Multimodal Urban Region," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 35(4), pages 575-589, April.
    21. Schwartz, S., 1994. "The fallacy of the ecological fallacy: The potential misuse of a concept and the consequences," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 84(5), pages 819-824.
    22. Redman, Lauren & Friman, Margareta & Gärling, Tommy & Hartig, Terry, 2013. "Quality attributes of public transport that attract car users: A research review," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 119-127.
    23. Lothlorien Redmond & Patricia Mokhtarian, 2001. "The positive utility of the commute: modeling ideal commute time and relative desired commute amount," Transportation, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 179-205, May.
    24. Straatemeier, Thomas, 2008. "How to plan for regional accessibility," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 127-137, March.
    25. Klinger, Thomas, 2017. "Moving from monomodality to multimodality? Changes in mode choice of new residents," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 221-237.
    26. Marcial Echenique & Anthony Hargreaves & Gordon Mitchell & Anil Namdeo, 2012. "Growing Cities Sustainably," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(2), pages 121-137.
    27. Iain Deas & Benito Giordano, 2001. "Conceptualising and Measuring Urban Competitiveness in Major English Cities: An Exploratory Approach," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(8), pages 1411-1429, August.
    28. Michael Hagerty & Robert Cummins & Abbott Ferriss & Kenneth Land & Alex Michalos & Mark Peterson & Andrew Sharpe & Joseph Sirgy & Joachim Vogel, 2001. "Quality of Life Indexes for National Policy: Review and Agenda for Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 1-96, July.
    29. J. A. Sinden, 1982. "Application of Quality of Life Indicators to Socioeconomic Problems:," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 401-420, October.
    30. Giuliano, Genevieve, 2003. "Travel, location and race/ethnicity," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 351-372, May.
    31. Cutts, Bethany B. & Darby, Kate J. & Boone, Christopher G. & Brewis, Alexandra, 2009. "City structure, obesity, and environmental justice: An integrated analysis of physical and social barriers to walkable streets and park access," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1314-1322, November.
    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. Huynh, Vy Dang Bich & Nguyen, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To & Nguyen, Phong Thanh, 2022. "Modeling Quality of Urban Life Using Grey Analytical Hierarchy Process," MPRA Paper 116681, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jan 2023.
    2. Timmer, Sebastian & Merfeld, Katrin & Henkel, Sven, 2023. "Exploring motivations for multimodal commuting: A hierarchical means-end chain analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    3. Aurelio Hess & Sampson Banflo Narteh-Yoe, 2020. "Productivity, Sustainability, and Economic Growth in Metropolises: Estimates of Long-Time Commuting Effects in Developing Countries," Proceedings of the 16th International RAIS Conference, March 30-31, 2020 004ah, Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies.
    4. Jantsch, Antje & Piper, Alan, 2024. "An investigation into the relationship between town size and well-being in Latin America and the role of education," MPRA Paper 120565, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Timmer, Sebastian & Bösehans, Gustav & Henkel, Sven, 2023. "Behavioural norms or personal gains? – An empirical analysis of commuters‘ intention to switch to multimodal mobility behaviour," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    6. Alexis Poulhès & Angèle Brachet, 2021. "Does Revitalizing the Center of Mid-Sized French Cities Reduce GHG Emissions from Commuting?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.
    7. Frederick, Chad & Hammersmith, Anna & Gilderbloom, John Hans, 2019. "Putting ‘place’ in its place: Comparing place-based factors in interurban analyses of life expectancy in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 148-155.
    8. Takumi Horiike & Kento Yoh & Kenji Doi & Chun-Chen Chou, 2023. "Assessing the Hierarchical Diversity of Public Transportation Considering Connectivity and Its Implication on Regional Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-20, December.
    9. Musa Pazhuhan & Saeed Zanganeh Shahraki & Niloofar Kaveerad & Sirio Cividino & Matteo Clemente & Luca Salvati, 2020. "Factors Underlying Life Quality in Urban Contexts: Evidence from an Industrial City (Arak, Iran)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-16, March.
    10. Leila Ardestani & Shahla Choobchian & Hassan Sadighi & Hossein Azadi & Ants-Hannes Viira & Vjekoslav Tanaskovik & Alishir Kurban, 2022. "Investigating Subjective and Objective Quality of Life in Rural Areas: the Case of Tehran Province in Iran," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 671-702, April.

    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. Dewulf, Bart & Neutens, Tijs & Vanlommel, Mario & Logghe, Steven & De Maeyer, Philippe & Witlox, Frank & De Weerdt, Yves & Van de Weghe, Nico, 2015. "Examining commuting patterns using Floating Car Data and circular statistics: Exploring the use of new methods and visualizations to study travel times," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 41-51.
    2. Anciaes, Paulo & Jones, Peter, 2020. "Transport policy for liveability – Valuing the impacts on movement, place, and society," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 157-173.
    3. Baruce C. Rudy, 2014. "The Wal-Mart Effect? Exploring the Social Costs of Explosive Organizational Growth," Working Papers 0191mgmt, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    4. Vale, David S., 2013. "Does commuting time tolerance impede sustainable urban mobility? Analysing the impacts on commuting behaviour as a result of workplace relocation to a mixed-use centre in Lisbon," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 38-48.
    5. Timmer, Sebastian & Merfeld, Katrin & Henkel, Sven, 2023. "Exploring motivations for multimodal commuting: A hierarchical means-end chain analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    6. António Ferreira & Els Beukers & Marco Te Brömmelstroet, 2012. "Accessibility is Gold, Mobility is Not: A Proposal for the Improvement of Dutch Transport-Related Cost-Benefit Analysis," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 39(4), pages 683-697, August.
    7. Lee, Richard J. & Sener, Ipek N., 2016. "Transportation planning and quality of life: Where do they intersect?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 146-155.
    8. Ming-Chang Tsai & Heng-Hao Chang & Wan-chi Chen, 2012. "Globally Happy: Individual Globalization, Expanded Capacities, and Subjective Wellbeing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 108(3), pages 509-524, September.
    9. Eduardo González & Ana Cárcaba & Juan Ventura, 2018. "Weight Constrained DEA Measurement of the Quality of Life in Spanish Municipalities in 2011," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 1157-1182, April.
    10. Alex Michalos, 2011. "What Did Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi Get Right and What Did They Get Wrong?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 117-129, May.
    11. Jiankun Yang & Min He & Mingwei He, 2022. "Exploring the Group Difference in the Nonlinear Relationship between Commuting Satisfaction and Commuting Time," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-19, July.
    12. Diego Born & Victoria Colamarco & Enrique Delamónica & Alberto Minujín, 2019. "South American Children’s Quality of Life: Intra-Urban Disparities along Life-Cycle Indicators," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 14(3), pages 799-817, July.
    13. Juan Pablo Celemín & Guillermo Ángel Velázquez, 2018. "Spatial Analysis of the Relationship Between a Life Quality Index, HDI and Poverty in the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 57-77, November.
    14. M. Narayana, 2009. "Education, Human Development and Quality of Life: Measurement Issues and Implications for India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 90(2), pages 279-293, January.
    15. He, Mingwei & Zhao, Shengchuan & He, Min, 2016. "Tolerance threshold of commuting time: Evidence from Kunming, China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-7.
    16. Bindong Sun & Jie Lin & Chun Yin, 2021. "How does commute duration affect subjective well-being? A case study of Chinese cities," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 885-908, April.
    17. Le, Huyen T.K. & Buehler, Ralph & Fan, Yingling & Hankey, Steve, 2020. "Expanding the positive utility of travel through weeklong tracking: Within-person and multi-environment variability of ideal travel time," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    18. Paleti, Rajesh, 2018. "Generalized multinomial probit Model: Accommodating constrained random parameters," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 248-262.
    19. Fatih Terzi & Handan Türkoğlu & Fulin Bölen & Perver Baran & Tayfun Salihoğlu, 2015. "Residents’ Perception of Cultural Activities as Quality of Life in Istanbul," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 211-234, May.
    20. Mouratidis, Kostas & Ettema, Dick & Næss, Petter, 2019. "Urban form, travel behavior, and travel satisfaction," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 306-320.

    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:spr:soinre:v:141:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-017-1829-4. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.