Land Use, Attitudes, and Travel Behavior Relationships: A Cross-Sectional Structural Equations Model for Northern California

Abstract

This paper focuses on the interactions between land use (LU) and travel behavior (TB), with the goal of increasing the understanding of the causal links among residential location, car ownership and travel behavior. These relationships are analyzed through the use of a structural equations model (SEM), based on survey data collected from residents of eight neighborhoods in Northern California. A cross-sectional analysis is carried out, in order to separately identify the influence of socio-demographics and attitudes on residential location and travel behavior, and distinguishing the impact of attitudes on TB from that of the built environment (BE) itself. In particular, the research aims at testing the hypothesis that residential self-selection (RSS) accounts for a significant portion of the impact of the BE on TB. The results confirm strong interactions among the built environment, car ownership and the travel behavior of residents. Moreover, the study highlights the relevance of personal attitudes, in particular with reference to accessibility, as important explanatory variables for the choice of residential location. A concurrent role of the BE and of RSS is found relevant in determining TB. The cross-sectional nature of the analysis allows exploring different directions of causality between car ownership and TB, and between land use attitudes and TB. Strong associations are found among these variables, although some degree of ambiguity persists on the definition of the dominant direction of causality.