The Impact of Built Environment Characteristics on Energy Consumption Using Geographically Weighted Regression in Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Concerns over rising fuel consumption have prompted research into the influences of built environments on travel behavior. On the basis of data from origin-destination(OD) travel survey data of Mashhad (74287 trip data in 2011) and using Geographically Weighted Regression, socio-demographic characteristics, are shown to be strongly and positively associated with the fuel consumption per capita (car ownership elasticity=0.347878); we also found a positive association between distance to center and designs that are not pedestrian friendly with fuel consumption (average block size=0.147489, distance to center =0.334953) Although the study demonstrates a moderately strong negative elasticity between population density and the fuel consumption(population density = -0.259335). It suggests that the largest energy consumption reductions would come from creating compact communities which have land-use diversity and more walkable areas with pedestrian cycling infrastructure around all of the stations along transit lines.In order to enhance a sustainable urban plan, the socio-economic driving factors should be considered as one of the main element of energy consumption as well.