Abstract
A large number of studies have investigated the association between the built environment and travel behavior. However, most studies did not explicitly quantify the contribution of residential self-selection to the connection. Using the 2006 data collected from a regional travel diary in Raleigh, NC, this study applies propensity score matching to explore the effects of the regional location of individuals' residences on their vehicle miles driven. We found that residential location plays a more important role in affecting driving behavior than residential self-selection; and that the self-selection effect is non-trivial when we compare driving behavior between urban residents and people living in other areas. Therefore, for such comparisons, the observed influence of residential locations on driving should be appropriately discounted when we evaluate the causal impacts of the built environment on travel behavior.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 797-805 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2010 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This survey was sponsored by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Triangle Transit Authority, and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. ArcGIS analyses were conducted by Rachel Jordan. Comments from anonymous reviewers greatly improved the paper.
Keywords
- Land use
- Residential location
- Smart growth
- Transportation
- Travel behavior
- Treatment effect
