Measuring Attitudes in Research on Residential Self‐Selection and Travel Behaviour: A Review of Theories and Empirical Research

Abstract

Empirical studies that include travel‐related attitudes to identify the role of residential self‐selection in the relationship between the built environment and travel behaviour display a wide variety in the type of attitudes that they include, the relationships between the variables that they analyse and the ways they measure attitude. This paper discusses what theories on attitudes and behaviour can contribute to examining the role of self‐selection and reviews those studies on residential self‐selection and travel behaviour that explicitly include attitudes. Although several studies state that residential self‐selection is accounted for by the inclusion of attitudes, the complexity of the inclusion and the measurement of attitudes often leads to an underestimation of the role of residential self‐selection. Because of their relevance to the reliability of results, the options for measuring travel‐related attitudes are also discussed. When attitudes are included in questionnaires, it is essential to consider reliability, efficiency, response and the number of variables.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial assistance of the Dutch government through the Habiforum Program Innovative Land Use and Delft University of Technology through the Delft Centre for Sustainable Urban Areas. The authors wish to thank the referees for their constructive comments.