Causes and effects between attitudes, the built environment and car kilometres: A longitudinal analysis

Abstract

Travel-related attitudes are believed to affect the connections between the built environment and travel behaviour. Previous studies found supporting evidence for the residential self-selection hypothesis which suggests that the impact of the built environment on travel behaviour could be overestimated when attitudes are not accounted for. However, this hypothesis is under scrutiny as the reverse causality hypothesis, which implies a reverse direction of influence from the built environment towards attitudes, is receiving increased attention in recent research. This study tests both directions of influence by means of cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models. GPS tracking is used to assess changes in travel behaviour in terms of car kilometres travelled. The outcomes show stronger reverse causality effects than residential self-selection effects and that land-use policies significantly reduce car kilometres travelled. Moreover, the longitudinal models show that the built environment characteristics provide a better explanation for changes in car kilometres travelled than the travel-related attitudes. This contradicts the cross-sectional analysis where associations between car kilometres travelled and travel-related attitudes were stronger. This highlights the need for more longitudinal studies in this field.

Accessibility Barriers and Perceived Accessibility: Implications for Public Transport

“…Hence, the context of a non-major city area is generally (still) negative as regards to perceived accessibility of public transportation, in line with previous conclusions by Delbosc and Currie [2]. Our findings are also in line with a recently published study by van de Coevering et al [24], showing that distance to the nearest railway station is strongly associated with attitudes toward public transport. The study shows that a great distance has a strong negative influence, whereas a short distance has a positive influence on perceptions of public transport.…”

Exploring the Impacts of Built Environment on Commute Mode Choice: Evidence from China

“…Leck [12] found that residential density is the strongest element of the built environment influencing travel mode choice. Negative associations between residential density and car ownership, VKT, and fuel consumption are further confirmed [13][14][15]. Increases in employment density are also found to negatively affect car ownership and use [16,17].…”

“…Studies reveal that individual factors also have some impacts. For example, males and people with a higher education level are more inclined to drive more [15].…”

How Stable Are Transport-Related Attitudes over Time?

“…Because of their correlation with relatively stable behaviors (e.g., mode choice), we hypothesize that transport-related attitudes are predictable over time. While some have found this to be the case (van de Coevering, Maat, and Wee 2021), others have reported instability over time frames ranging from one week to two years (Sunkanapalli, Pendyala, and Kuppam 2000;Adams et al 2013;Thøgersen 2006).…”