Built Environment, Causality and Travel

Abstract

Within research into influences of the built environment on travel behaviour, the issue of causality has gained increased attention. Several attempts have been made in order to identify the true effects of built environment characteristics by controlling for attitudinal and lifestyle factors and by applying more sophisticated techniques of analysis. Most research still suffers from insufficient theorizing and empirical investigation of causal mechanisms. An implicit conception of causality in terms of correlation between subsequent events appears to be widespread. This paper argues that such a conception of causality is inadequate and can lead to model specification error. Instead, a conception of causality as tendencies engendered by generative mechanisms is proposed. Based on such an understanding, the paper discusses in what sense the built environment can be said to exert causal influences on travel behaviour. In order to integrate knowledge about causal influences at the level of the individual and at the city level, a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods is recommended.

Geographic regions for assessing built environmental correlates with walking trips: A comparison using different metrics and model designs

“…Cross-sectional study designs produce different results between years, whereas both of the longitudinal self-defined neighborhood models better explained changes in walking trips, compared to the longitudinal walking activity space model. This instability in relationships between time points is a major shortcoming of cross-sectional research designs and highlights the need to analyze longitudinal data (Næss, 2015). Our results agree with previous calls for longitudinal study designs using a natural experiment to assess the effect of changing the built environment.…”

What Kind of Compact Development Makes People Drive Less? The “Ds of the Built Environment” versus Neighborhood Amenities

“…A possible limitation of Stevens’ (2017) analysis and many built-environment/travel studies is their strong emphasis on the “five Ds of the built environment”—density, diversity, design, distance to transit, and destination accessibility (to jobs or a city center)—in explaining travel behavior. A general lack of conceptual models and insufficient theoretical grounding is sometimes noted in the built-environment/travel literature (Boarnet 2011; Handy 2017; Næss 2015). With an excessive focus on the Ds framework, there is a risk of theoretical fallacy if travel is seen as derived from aggregated location patterns rather than as an outcome of individual decision processes involving personal prerequisites (e.g., car disposal and household composition) and contextual conditions, such as the spatial pattern of the built environment.…”

The Association between Urban Public Transport Infrastructure and Social Equity and Spatial Accessibility within the Urban Environment: An Investigation of Tramlink in London

“…This disregard for the urban environment fails to recognise its role in enhancing or restricting individuals as agents in their activities as these always occur within physical structures [19,20,50]. Furthermore, human social characteristics are themselves a product of the physical environment in which they are created [19,20]. Therefore, human agency is still being restricted or enhanced within current physical structures, which are neglected in the debate.…”

“…To some extent, investigating the role of transport within the urban environment can provide answers regarding social sustainability [9][10][11][12]. It is acknowledged that public transport investments can increase accessibility to opportunities, such as education, leisure, employment and retail [13][14][15], through a reduction in the "friction of distance", as well as through "time-space compression" [16][17][18][19]. Yet there is little empirical evidence that infrastructure interventions, particularly those involving transport infrastructure, can improve social sustainability and even less investigation of the influence at a localised level testing for spatial accessibility [20].…”