Feedback Effects in the Relationship between the Built Environment and Travel

Abstract

Clearly, the built environment has certain effects on the travel behavior of individuals and households, but Dutch research findings indicate that this relationship is quite complex. Although the argumentation behind these spatial concepts sounds plausible, other mechanisms may complicate the relationship between travel behavior and the built environment. Rather than the built environment having a straightforward influence on trip frequencies, travel distances and mode choices, we may be dealing with endogenous relationships, in which individuals take into account other preferences, other activities and travel, other people, and other locations. The goal of this study is to review primarily Dutch empirical work that goes beyond direct associations and address these feedback effects in the relationship between the built environment and travel behavior. It is argued that second order effects, such as rebound effects and residential self-selection are largely responsible for this.

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kees Maat

Kees Maat is an Associate Professor and Head of the Urban and Regional Development section at the OTB Research Institute for the Built Environment at the Delft University of Technology. His research is concerned with the study of the built environment, accessibility and travel behavior, particularly the relationship between them. Recent and current research deals with transit-oriented design, car ownership and use, electric vehicles, and bicycling. He focuses increasingly on GPS-based data collection and longitudinal studies to explore travel behavior.

Theo Arentze

Dr. Theo Arentze is an Associate Professor at the Urban Planning Group at the Delft University of Technology. His research interests include activity-based modeling, discrete choice modeling, agent-based modeling, knowledge discovery and learning-based systems, and decision support systems for applications in transportation research, urban planning and consumer research.