The question of whether population density affects the amount of household automobile travel in the United States is revisited. Controls for income and demographics are included in a multivariate regression model of vehicle travel that includes vehicle ownership as an intermediate factor and that treats a household's pick of neighborhood density and the amount of travel as a simultaneous relationship. The data come from the 1990 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey. It is found that density matters, but not much. A 10 percent increase in density leads to only a 0.7 percent reduction in household automobile travel. By comparison, a 10 percent increase in household income leads to a 3 percent increase in automobile travel. The results are similar when vehicle trips are used as the dependent variable. The effect of density is so small that even a relatively large-scale shift to urban densities would have a negligible impact on total vehicle travel.
Household Motor Vehicle Ownership and Use: How Much Does Residential Density Matter?
Transportation Research Record
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board ; 1552 , 1 ; 120-125
2019-01-01
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Household Motor Vehicle Ownership and Use: How Much Does Residential Density Matter?
Online Contents | 1996
|Household Motor Vehicle Ownership and Use: How Much Does Residential Density Matter?
Transportation Research Record | 1996
|Household Motor Vehicle Ownership and Use: How Much Does Residential Density Matter?
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1996
|SLUB | 1981
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