Why do urbanites travel more than do others? A review of associations between urban form and long-distance leisure travel

Abstract

Negative relationships between urban density and greenhouse gas emissions from daily travel are well established in the literature. However, recent research suggests that higher urban density is associated with higher emissions from long-distance leisure travel, such as car weekend trips and international flights. This article presents the first systematic review of empirical evidence on these associations and discusses potential explanations. A two-step article selection process yielded 27 empirical articles, complemented by one article published during the review process. When international travel is included in the analysis, the results suggest that residents of the largest cities, and particularly those from centrally located and densely built areas, travel more to cover long distances than do others, after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables. When only domestic travel is included, residents of larger settlements and areas of higher density engage in less long-distance travel for leisure purposes than those living in smaller settlements and sparsely built areas. The results of the review are indicative and warrant more research. Generalization is currently limited because of the wide variety of travel behavior measures used, consideration of different travel modes and trip purposes, and geographic scope. There is a strong need for replication of the results using consistent methodology, using data from longer and more recent time spans, and expanding to more diverse geographical settings, especially outside Europe. The systematic review is followed by a narrative review of theoretical explanations of the associations. The most common explanations include: rebound effects, the compensation hypothesis, access to transport infrastructure, urban lifestyles, sociopsychological characteristics, and social networks. Socioeconomic variables are controlled in a majority of the reviewed studies, and business travel is excluded from the review, so the concentration of wealth and business in cities may explain the findings only to some extent. Nonetheless, there is not enough empirical evidence on the causal character of the associations and therefore further qualitative and multidisciplinary work is needed. Compact city and urban densification policies are not strongly challenged by current evidence, and most common policy recommendations point to including air travel into carbon taxing or quota schemes.

Flights Dominate Travel Emissions of Young Urbanites

“…When socio-psychological factors, such as cosmopolitan attitudes, were controlled in regression models, distance to the center lost its significance. This result supports the hypothesis of cosmopolitan orientation as a reason behind the elevated levels of international travel of inner-city dwellers in Nordic cities [18,23,68]. The level of language skills was another important predictor, which, together with the impact of education level known from previous research, suggests that cultural capital may be another driver of the aggregate geographical patterns.…”

“…We found the emissions from international leisure travel to increase towards the city center, reaching nearly five tons in the city center and its surroundings, approximately the current annual average global per capita emissions [1]. The geographical trend is in line with previous research [17,18,23,31,68]. When socio-psychological factors, such as cosmopolitan attitudes, were controlled in regression models, distance to the center lost its significance.…”

“…It also appears to be clustered geographically, with high values concentrated in the city center ( Figure A2). It thus appears that the geographical trends described in Section 3.1.4 could be largely explained by the spatial clustering of cosmopolitan and travel-positive attitudes in the city center (see also [18]). Climate change awareness (Factor 2) significantly, even if weakly, was Those who disagreed or were unsure about the statements were shown to be somewhat less likely to speak multiple languages or have a university degree than other groups, but they were not found to differ in terms of income levels (Table A9).…”

Urban carbon footprints: a consumption-based approach for Swiss households

“…Conversely, urban households have consistently larger volumes of indirect emissions deriving from air travel. This result aligns with findings of recent studies showing that urban residents typically engage more in flight-based long-distance leisure travel due to various factors, such as having more geographically-dispersed social networks and more vibrant and cosmopolitan lifestyles [38]. Due to data constraints, the GHG emissions associated with flights can only be indirectly quantified via household expenditure data on flight tickets reported in the HBS and is likely to have been underestimated herein due to limitations of the HBS (see section 4.3].…”

The Geographical Distribution and Correlates of Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors in an Urban Region

“…The data were collected using a softGIS method, in which conventional survey questions, such as multiple choice and scaled questions, were combined with an interactive map [52,56]. The map allowed respondents to mark visited locations and answer questions pertaining to these locations.…”