The Influences of Neighborhood Crime on Mode Choice

摘要

There are considerable environmental and public health benefits if people choose to walk,bicycle, or ride transit, instead of drive. However, little work has been done on the effects ofneighborhood crimes on mode choice. Instinctively, we understand that the threats posed bypossible criminal activity in our neighborhood can play a major role in our decision to drive, taketransit, walk or ride a bicycle, but so far we have little empirical evidence supports this notion,let alone guide our public infrastructure investments, land use planning, or the allocation ofpolice services. This paper finds that high crime neighborhoods tend to discourage residents fromwalking or riding a bicycle. When comparing a high crime to a lower crime neighborhood theodds of walking over choosing auto decrease by 17.25 percent for work trips and 61 percent fornon-work trips. For transit access to work trips, the odds of choosing walk/bike to a transitstation over auto decrease by 48.1 percent. Transit trips, on the other hand, appear to respond toneighborhood crime levels in a similar way to auto trips, wherein high crime neighborhoodsappear to encourage transit mode choice. The odds of taking transit over choosing auto increaseby 17.25 percent for work trips and 164 percent for non-work trips. Digging deeper, the paperfinds that transit access trips (walking, bicycling or driving to a transit station) are sensitive toneighborhood crimes as well, wherein high crime neighborhoods discourage walking andbicycling and encourage driving to transit stations.