The Effects of Urban Spatial Structure on Travel Demand in the United States
Open accessAbstract
We examine the effects of urban form and public transit supply on the commute mode choices and annual vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) of households living in 114 urban areas in 1990. The probability of driving to work is lower the higher are population centrality and rail miles supplied and the lower is road density. Population centrality, jobs-housing balance, city shape, and road density have a significant effect on annual household VMTs. Although individual elasticities are small absolute values (≤0.10), moving sample households from a city with the characteristics of Atlanta to a city with the characteristics of Boston reduces annual VMTs by 25%.
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All of the D variables have been found to be related to vehicle ownership in one study or another.
“That is, all of the Ds have been found to be related to vehicle ownership in one study or another, like population and employment density (Bento et al., 2005; Chatman, 2013; Guo, 2013; Hess and Ong, 2002; Pinjari et al., 2011; Ryan and Han, 1999; Zegras, 2010), street network design (Bento et al., 2005; Bhat and Guo, 2007; Guo, 2013; Pinjari et al., 2011), land use diversity (Bento et al., 2005;”
From Key Enhancements to the WFRC/MAG Four-Step Travel Demand Model (2019) · cites this paper as Bento et al., 2005
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Key Enhancements to the WFRC/MAG Four-Step Travel Demand Model
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- Authors
- Bento, A. M., Cropper, M. L., Mobarak, A. M., & Vinha, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- World Bank (US)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Universidad de Los Andes (CO)
- Venue
- Review of Economics and Statistics
- Publisher
- MIT Press - Journals
- Published
- 2005-08
- Volume
- 87
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 466-478
- ISSN
- 0034-6535 (ISSN-L)
- 1530-9142
- OpenAlex
- W2061856354
- Cited by
- 546
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 33 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 41 · 2014: 40 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 25
- FWCI
- 34.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- The Review of Economics and Statistics (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Transportation › Urban Transport and Accessibility
- Social Sciences › Transportation › Transportation Planning and Optimization
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis
- Keywords
- urban structure, travel demand, commuting mode choice, vehicle miles traveled, road density, jobs-housing balance, city shape, urban form
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