A Comprehensive Analysis of Built Environment Characteristics on Household Residential Choice and Auto Ownership Levels
Chandra R. Bhat and Jessica Y. Guo, University of Texas at Austin, September 2006, 58 pp. (167860-1)
In this report, we identify the research designs and methodologies that may be used to test the presence of “true” causality versus residential sorting-based “spurious” associations in the land-use transportation connection. The report then develops a methodological formulation to control for residential sorting effects in the analysis of the effect of built environment attributes on travel behavior-related choices. The formulation is applied to comprehensively examine the impact of the built environment, transportation network attributes, and demographic characteristics on residential choice and car ownership decisions. The model formulation takes the form of a joint mixed multinomial logit-ordered response structure that (a) accommodates differential sensitivity to the built environment and transportation network variables due to both demographic and unobserved household attributes and (b) controls for the self-selection of individuals into neighborhoods based on car ownership preferences stemming from both demographic characteristics and unobserved household factors.
Keywords: Built Environment, Residential Sorting, Self-Selection, Auto Ownership, Integrated Land Use-Transportation Modeling
ENTIRE REPORT (Adobe Acrobat File – 359 KB)