Built Environment, Life Style Choices and Active Transportation: Evidence from Halifax Regional Municipality, NS, Canada

摘要

It is evident that ever increasing dependency on cars and auto-oriented lifestyle choices not only increase environmental pollution, traffic congestion, and energy use; they also decrease usage of active transportation (AT) for daily trips. Recent studies suggest that the built environment (BE) plays a significant role in influencing the choice of AT, particularly for non-work-related trips. Thus, this paper aims to examine the influence of the built environment and individual lifestyle choices on AT frequency for home-based non-work trips in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), in Nova Scotia, Canada. This study utilizes the Household Mobility and Travel Survey (HMTS) obtained from a retrospective survey conducted in the HRM in 2012. This paper utilizes factor analysis for grouping the lifestyle choice variables based on the loading of the factors and comprises of two categories: a) individuals' attitudes towards travel mode choices; and b) individuals' attitudes towards land use, the environment and commute experiences. Additionally, this paper includes an ordered probit model for modelling the built environment and lifestyle choice factors affecting AT choice for home based non-work trips. The empirical results provide useful insights into the effect of socio-demographic variables, built environment characteristics and lifestyle choices on AT frequencies for non-work trips. This study provides exploratory methodological evidence that could lead to an approach for predicting the change in home based non-active trip generation as a result of changes related to AT infrastructure, streetscape enhancements, and strategic growth centres.