Travel behavior at the household level: Understanding linkages with residential choice

Previous work with data from the Boston Metropolitan Area has suggested that land use characteristics can have measurable impacts on travel behavior such as trip linking and mode choice at the individual level. However, trip planning, especially in households with children or more than one worker, is quite possibly done at the household level. In this paper, we begin to understand the travel behavior choices of households and understand the relationship of these choices with socio-economic characteristics as well as spatial characteristics of the places where the household resides, works and travels through. The results of preliminary models estimated indicate that the travel behavior of a household is indeed related to the household's residential location. The models estimated are not for the purposes of travel demand forecasting as in the case of the household based Stockholm models. The results do indicate if land use, network and accessibility characteristics also affect household trip linking and mode choice and their relationship to residential choice. Thus, one can begin to determine whether planners can make a difference through the implementation of the ideas of neo-traditional theories in local level planning. These models should provide a starting point for further exploration of the land use and transportation linkages explored from the point of view of the more realistic unit of the household.