Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis

Problem: Localities and states are turning to land planning and urban design for help in reducing automobile use and related social and environmental costs. The effects of such strategies on travel demand have not been generalized in recent years from the multitude of available studies. Purpose: We conducted a meta-analysis of the built environment-travel literature existing at the end of 2009 in order to draw generalizable conclusions for practice. We aimed to quantify effect sizes, update earlier work, include additional outcome measures, and address the methodological issue of self-selection. Methods: We computed elasticities for individual studies and pooled them to produce weighted averages. Results and conclusions: Travel variables are generally inelastic with respect to change in measures of the built environment. Of the environmental variables considered here, none has a weighted average travel elasticity of absolute magnitude greater than 0.39, and most are much less. Still, the combined effect o...

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Travel and the Built Environment

Research in transportation, urban design, and planning has examined associations between physical environment variables and individuals' walking and cycling for transport. Constructs, methods, and findings from these fields can be applied by physical activity and health researchers to improve understanding of environmental influences on physical activity. In this review, neighborhood environment characteristics proposed to be relevant to walking/cycling for transport are defined, including population density, connectivity, and land use mix. Neighborhood comparison and correlational studies with nonmotorized transport outcomes are considered, with evidence suggesting that residents from communities with higher density, greater connectivity, and more land use mix report higher rates of walking/cycling for utilitarian purposes than low-density, poorly connected, and single land use neighborhoods. Environmental variables appear to add to variance accounted for beyond sociodemographic predictors of walking/cycling for transport. Implications of the transportation literature for physical activity and related research are outlined. Future research directions are detailed for physical activity research to further examine the impact of neighborhood and other physical environment factors on physical activity and the potential interactive effects of psychosocial and environmental variables. The transportation, urban design, and planning literatures provide a valuable starting point for multidisciplinary research on environmental contributions to physical activity levels in the population.

Environmental correlates of walking and cycling: Findings from the transportation, urban design, and planning literatures

How the built environment affects physical activity: views from urban planning

Suburban development in the US is widely criticized for its contribution to automobile dependence and its consequences. Not surprisingly, then, a return to more urban-style development, where potential destinations are closer to home, is often put forth as a strategy for reducing automobile dependence. This paper evaluates the possibility that providing local shopping opportunities will help to reduce automobile dependence by exploring how residents of existing neighborhoods make use of the local shopping opportunities currently available to them. Using both quantitative and qualitative evidence for six neighborhoods in Austin, TX, we address two sets of questions. First, to what degree do residents choose local shopping over more distant opportunities and why? What are the implications for vehicle travel? Second, to what degree do residents choose to walk rather than drive to local shopping and why? What are the implications for vehicle travel? The results of this exploration suggest that local shopping will not prove a particularly effective strategy for reducing automobile dependence in the typical US city by either reducing travel distances or encouraging alternative modes of travel. Residents of such places choose more distant stores enough of the time that they increase total driving significantly, and they don't choose alternative modes enough of the time that they reduce total driving significantly. But while local shopping may not do much to reduce driving it does give residents the option to drive less and this option is something residents clearly value. Local shopping does not show great promise as a strategy for reducing automobile use, but it does show promise as a strategy for enhancing quality of life in neighborhoods, at least partly by making driving once again a matter of choice.

Local shopping as a strategy for reducing automobile travel

The development and testing of an audit for the pedestrian environment

The focus of this study is on the opportunities and challenges presented to cyclists on and around the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park. A web-based survey was conducted to understand the travel patterns and the specific issues regarding bicyclists. The survey included questions about possible bicycle infrastructure improvements, policy, and program innovations to assess the perceptions of the campus community regarding these changes. The findings of this survey, conducted to understand cyclists' travel patterns and identify their issues and concerns, are discussed. Both nonbicycle commuters and bicycle commuters agreed that bicycle lanes, trails, and paths would encourage them to ride a bike (or ride more often) to the campus. Discrete choice models are estimated to model the commuters' mode to campus. The findings of the models suggest that people are more sensitive to time for nonmotorized modes and women are less likely to ride a bicycle. Those who perceive walking and biking as a form of exercise and identify flexibility of departure time as an important factor in their mode choice are more likely to ride a bicycle. Those more likely to choose to drive an automobile to campus assume that they do not have other options to commute to campus. Policies designed to promote the use of bicycle transportation on and to the campus based on these findings are presented. The results of this study will help practitioners and campus transportation planners understand the reasons that prevent people from bicycling and evaluate the transportation improvements that may be considered to achieve bicycle-friendly campuses.

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Influence of Individual Perceptions and Bicycle Infrastructure on Decision to Bike

This article focuses on the relationship between the mobility constraints that low-income families face in their acquisition of food and the coping strategies they develop for this routine task. The motivations and rationale behind travel and provisioning choices of the working poor and the resources available to them are examined by means of a series of semistructured interviews conducted with members of twenty-six low-income house-holds residing in the Austin, Texas, area. The ways that these households cope with their mobility and economic disadvantage are complex, logical, and varied; depend on their resources and circumstances; and must be flexible to deal with day-to-day occurrences. Evidence from this study shows that the flexibility afforded by the automobile widens the spatial and temporal aspects of mobility, allowing for a more extensive search for goods and services. The automobile is an important mode for nonwork travel, even among those households that do not own one. However, the transit an...

Mobility Strategies and Food Shopping for Low-Income Families: A Case Study

This paper characterizes and reviews multidisciplinary approaches to urban form. It begins by classifying quantitative approaches to analyzing urban form into five classes: landscape ecology, economic structure, surface transportation, community design, and urban design. It then reviews quantitative measures in each class. Based on the review, four conclusions are drawn. First, over the last two decades substantial progress has been made in the ability to measure and analyze spatial patterns that help characterize urban form. Second, at multiples scales and for a variety of reasons, there are advantages to development that is mixed and compact. Third, normative principles and policies for addressing urban form need to be crafted at multiple scales and carefully designed to address the disparate issues that arise at each scale. Fourth, with so many disparate measures now used to operationalize the same constructs, it would advance urban form research to have some standardization in operational definitions ...

Kelly J. Clifton

Papers

Local shopping as a strategy for reducing automobile travel

The development and testing of an audit for the pedestrian environment

Influence of Individual Perceptions and Bicycle Infrastructure on Decision to Bike

Mobility Strategies and Food Shopping for Low-Income Families: A Case Study

Quantitative analysis of urban form: a multidisciplinary review