Travel Lifestyles And The Built Environment: Exploring How Post-Secondary Students Navigate the GTHA

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between travel lifestyles and the built -environment in post-secondary students - a historically understudied section of the population- in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Canada. An extensive, data-driven was used to classify students based on their travel patterns and neighbourhoods based on their built environment characteristics and explore correlations between the two. We identified five very distinct student travel lifestyles – Car users, Occasional Drivers, Transit Users, Cyclists and Walkers. Only 33% of Post Secondary students were identified as car dependent and a very high proportion of them are systematically multi-modal in their travel pattern. Alternatively, there is some indication that these changes may be a function of vehicle access. Atypically strong correlations between traveller types and the built environment in which they reside were also identified, particularly in certain neighbourhood types suggesting student travel may be more influenced by their environment.