Does Walkable neighborhood walk more? Association between built environment, distance, and travel mode choices

Abstract

The role of built environment on travel behavior is one of the major research in the field of urban planning. Previous attempts in the built environment studies have shown that dense, well-connected, and diverse environment affect people’s travel behavior, especially on walking. This study aims to further examine the impact of such built environments in an attempt to find the level of built environment known to influence travel behavior. The travel pattern of elderly and non-elderly by the travel distance and the travel mode choice by the neighborhood walkability is also studied. The 2012 Seoul Metropolitan Household Travel Survey was used to analyze the travel pattern of individuals, in their trip origin neighborhood. The findings suggest that (1) there are marginal effect of built environments on travel behavior; (2) elderly and non-elderly have different travel mode choices for commute and shopping trips; (3) elderly are more sensitive to the neighborhood walkability, that the elderly in walkable neighborhood are more likely to walk and take public transportation than the non-elderly in walkable neighborhood. My thesis suggests that the role of built environments on travel behavior, indeed have positive impact in the travel behavior of individuals, by encouraging the likelihood of active travel. However, in contrast to the former beliefs that the increased level of built environment would lead to equivalently increased active travel, the built environment has its limitations on the ability to encourage active travel.