Active Travel Behavior and Spatial-Temporal Land Use Mixing

Steven Gehrke, Portland State University

Summary:

Urban policies have emphasized the importance of land use mixing as an intervention beholding of lasting planning and public health benefits. Transportation planners have identified potential in efficiency gains achieved by increasing land use mix and the subsequent shortening of trip lengths; whereas, public health research has accredited increased land use mixing as an effective policy for facilitating greater physical activity. However, despite the myriad benefits and extent of topical research, no consensus has been reached regarding the magnitude of land use mixing’s effect on active travel. Absence of agreement may largely be attributed to theoretical and methodological failings persistent in past measurements. This research will identify these shortcomings and provide practice with a metric better equipped to evaluate the construct’s link to travel. Specifically, this work examines the relationship between land use mix and (a) pedestrian travel when considering the complementarity, composition, and configuration of land use types; (b) mode choice when mix is operationalized at varying geographic scales; and (c) active travel behavior when temporal availability of activity locations is incorporated into a mix metric. Results will provide greater specificity to policymakers and practitioners interested in the active travel outcomes associated with implementation of this smart growth principle.

Project Details

Project Type:
Dissertation
Project Status:
Completed
End Date:
March 31,2016
UTC Grant Cycle:
Tier 1 Dissertation Fellowships Spr. '15
UTC Funding:
$15,000

Other Products

  • A pathway linking smart growth neighborhoods to household-level pedestrian travel (PRESENTATION)
  • An activity-related land use mix construct and its connection to pedestrian travel (PRESENTATION)
  • An activity-related land use mix construct and its connection to pedestrian travel (PRESENTATION)
  • An activity-based approach to measuring the effect of land use mixing on pedestrian travel (PRESENTATION)
  • An activity-based approach to measuring the effect of land use mixing on pedestrian travel (PRESENTATION)
  • Towards a spatial-temporal measure of land-use mix (PRESENTATION)