Self‐Selection: A Key to a Better Understanding of Location Choices, Travel Behaviour and Transport Externalities?

Abstract

In the last decade the importance of attitude‐related residential self‐selection has frequently been recognized. In addition people can theoretically self‐select them with respect to other location choices, such as job locations, with respect to travel behaviour, or with respect to the exposure to transport externalities such as noise and congestion. In this paper, we argue that insights into self‐selection processes might significantly improve our knowledge on location choices, travel behaviour and transport externalities. We elaborate on options for self‐selection and briefly formulate methodologies for research into self‐selection.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Patricia Mokhtarian, University of California, Davis, and two anonymous referees, for their comments on a draft of this paper.