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An integrated assessment of factors affecting modal choice: towards a better understanding of the causal effects of built environment

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Abstract

This paper discusses the methodological challenges in understanding causal relationships between urban form and travel behavior and uses a holistic quasi-experimental approach to investigate the separable marginal influence of each of several urban form factors on mode choice as well as the complex relationships between those factors and a wide range of personal traits. Data analysis and models are used to reveal the effect of such interactions on mode choice for both work and non-work trips in Rome, Italy. It is found that population density does not have a significant marginal positive effect on sustainable mode choice for work trips. Conversely, this factor decreases sustainable mode choice for non-work trips. Small scale street design quality alone increases sustainable mode choice for non-work trips. This is while presence of street network integration alone increases automobile use for all trip purposes. The results point to the importance of incorporating all the urban form factors of diversity, design and street network integration if the goal is to increase the use of more sustainable modes of transportation for both work and non-work trips, but also show that attitudes and preferences can modify the response to urban design factors. The findings suggest that thoughtful policies triggering certain attitudes (cost sensitivity, sensitivity to peer pressure regarding the value attributed to sustainable transportation, and transit preference) can be adopted to significantly increase sustainable mode choice even in the neighborhoods with specific physical restrictions.

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Notes

  1. We have also considered interpretability in order to determine how many factors to retain. The abovementioned statistical conditions held for fewer number of factors too (e.g. 12 factors for attitudes and 7 factors for neighborhood preferences). However, there were problems of interpretability.

  2. We could not include the interactions between personality traits and the street type in the ICLV model due to convergence problems.

  3. For work trips the coefficient values of the street panel parameter were −0.00174 (p value = 0.61) for walk mode, 0.0630 (p value = 0.27) for transit, and 0.00263 (p value = 0.48) for auto. For non-work trips, −0.224 (p value = 0.54) for walk, 0.0347 (p value = 0.46) for transit, and 0.0159 (p value = 0.37) for auto.

  4. The nesting parameter for walk and transit alternatives showed a coefficient value of 0.149 (p value = 0.63) for work trips and a coefficient value of 0.308 (p value = 0.44) for non-work trips. The nesting parameter for transit and auto alternatives showed a coefficient value of 0.348 (p value of 0.48) for work trips and a coefficient value of 0.632 (p value = 0.49) for non-work trips.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Planning, Design, and Architectural Technology, La Sapienza University of Rome, Via Flaminia 72, 00196, Rome, Italy

    Samira Ramezani & Barbara Pizzo

  2. Department of City and Regional Planning and Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Samira Ramezani & Elizabeth Deakin

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  1. Samira Ramezani
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  2. Barbara Pizzo
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  3. Elizabeth Deakin
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Correspondence to Samira Ramezani.

Appendix

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Table 6 Descriptive statistics of sample (n = 524)
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Ramezani, S., Pizzo, B. & Deakin, E. An integrated assessment of factors affecting modal choice: towards a better understanding of the causal effects of built environment. Transportation 45, 1351–1387 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-017-9767-1

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