BEYOND DENSITY, MODE CHOICE, AND SINGLE PURPOSE TRIPS

There are those who believe that land use patterns affect every aspect of household travel behavior, from trip rates to mode choices. They a dvocate compact development, urban villages, neo-traditional neighborh oods, pedestrian pockets, transit-oriented developments, mixed-use act ivity centers, and jobs-housing balance. On the other side of the issu e is a small but influential group of skeptics who question whether la nd use patterns matter in this age of near-universal auto ownership, s uperhighways, and low-cost travel. They say that the land use-travel s tudies upon which the advocates rely fail to prove their point. Sure, households in dense cities make less use of automobiles and more use o f alternative modes. But these households are also smaller and poorer than suburban households and therefore would make less use of automobi les wherever they lived. This study investigates the independent effec ts of land use on household travel behavior, controlling for sociodemo graphic differences among households. It appears that even in a sprawl ing sunbelt environment, land use patterns matter. However, their effe ct is not exactly as envisioned by the advocates. Accessibility to reg ional activities has much more effect on household travel patterns tha n does density or land use mix in the immediate area; accessibility ha s as much effect on the frequency and length of trips as the mode of t ravel; and these relationships can be best understood in terms of mult i-purpose trip making.