The Contextual Effects of Land Use on Mode Choice for Nonwork Travel: A Multilevel Multinomial Logit Modelling Analysis

摘要

Reducing driving is the objective of many transportation policies and programs forthe purpose of abating congestion, pollutions, and CO2 emissions. Land use policies are gainingpopularity as a mobility tool to modify travel. Yet whether modifying land use will lead tochanges in travel remains a topic of debate. Using the data from the household travel diarysurvey in Austin, this paper formulates and applies a multilevel multinomial logit model tocontinue the effort of identifying the mobility role of land use by focusing on its contextualeffects on mode choice for nonwork travel. The results indicate that land use attributes such asaccess to mixed-use activity center and sidewalk density exhibits contextual effects on travel costto influence jointly the mode choice decisions of nonwork travel. In areas with better regionalaccess and pedestrian-friendly environment, raising parking or toll charges is likely to havegreater effects on reducing driving while raising transit fare is less likely to discourage transitrides. The study suggests that travel demand management programs, for example, congestionpricing and incentives for encouraging travel alternatives to driving, would work moreeffectively if they are coupled with land use initiatives.