The Built Environment, Activity Space, and Time Allocation

203 Pages·2007·2.37 MB·English

The Built Environment, Activity Space, and Time Allocation
An activity-based framework for modeling the land use and travel connection

Yingling Fan

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in
partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department
of City and Regional Planning

Chapel Hill
2007

Approved by

Asad J. Khattak

Philip R. Berke

Mai T. Nguyen

Yan Song

Daniel A. Rodríguez
© 2007
Yingling Fan
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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ABSTRACT

Yingling Fan

The built environment, activity space, and time allocation: An activity-based framework for
modeling the land use and travel connection

(Under the direction of Asad J. Khattak)

Cities and metropolitan regions face several challenges including rising urban
populations, sprawled land use patterns, and related auto dependence, energy consumption,
greenhouse emissions, and human health effects. An important aspect of addressing these
challenges involves understanding the connection between urban environments and spatial
and temporal characteristics of individual activity-travel behavior. Advances in the research
arena can inform the development of land use and transportation policies that facilitate access
to local opportunities, reduce auto dependence, promote healthy travel behavior such as
walking and bicycling, and generate travel time savings. Further, research efforts on this
subject can help to measure the successes of existing transportation and land use planning
tools in terms of their “secondary” effects on individuals’ spatial accessibility, time
allocation, and quality of life.
My dissertation systematically tests the connection between land use and activity-
travel behavior by presenting three perspectives: one that focuses on the census block group
level; another that focuses on the individual level; and one that focuses on the trip level. The
analysis at the census block group level, named as the census block group level activity
pattern analysis in this research, examines how the built environment of a census block-group
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is associated with the aggregated distribution of activities and trips occurring within the
census block-group. The individual-level analysis, named as the individual activity space and
time allocation analysis, links individuals’ spatial and temporal footprints to the built
environment at the home location, traffic conditions at the home location, weather
conditions, and individual/household characteristics. The trip-level analysis, named as the
trip distance and duration analysis, demonstrates how environmental factors at the trip origin
and destination and activity/trip characteristics are associated with the distance and duration
of each trip.
The census block group level activity pattern analysis indicates that dense
developments are not necessarily positively associated with diversity in activity categories or
demographic diversity of the individuals who were involved with activities in the area.
Greater land use diversity is associated with higher activity density and greater activity
diversity but lower alternative mode share. Grid street patterns and the presence of sidewalks
are both associated with higher activity density and more alternative mode share.
The individual activity space and time allocation analysis shows that small activity
area size—less spatially dispersed daily activity locations—are related to dense
developments, more retail stores, the presence of sidewalks, and the presence of heavy traffic
in the residential neighborhood and are related to cold weather and precipitation. Most of the
built environment factors show no association with time allocations to out-of-home activities
or leisure activities, while they do show various associations with travel time allocations
depending on the travel mode. Besides the built environment at the home location, weather
conditions and traffic conditions also play an important role in both the individual spatial
footprint and time allocation.
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The trip distance and duration analysis suggests that shorter distance of non-work
related trips is related to more retail stores, fewer industrial firms, and heavy traffic near the
trip origin. After controlling for trip distance, the duration of driving trips is positively related
to street grids, the presence of sidewalks, and dense developments at the trip origin and/or
destination while the duration of walking trips is not. The analysis also suggests different
activity/travel categories show dramatic differences in the sensitivity to environmental
factors such as the built environment, traffic conditions, and weather. Not only do trips with
different modes respond to these environmental factors in different ways, but trips related to
different activity categories also show differences in the environmental sensitivity. Walking
trips are more vulnerable to weather conditions than are driving trips.
This research took an activity-based and time use approach to study the land use-
travel connection, which fills the gap between activity modeling and land use-travel
modeling in the existing literature. Evidence found in this research supports the notion that
transportation problems can be ameliorated through the use of land use strategies. The
research also points out that the strength of the land use-travel connection is conditional on
other environmental factors such as traffic and weather conditions, as well as activity context
such as activity type and time of day.

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Dedicated to my mother, Jiannan, and to my father, Zenan
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to the many people with whom I had the honor of working and without
whom the completion of this dissertation project would have been much more difficult. I am
thankful to all the members in my qualifying examination and dissertation committees—
Professors Berke, Burby, Khattak, Nguyen, Rodríguez, and Song who helped me to bring this
work to fruition. Comments and advices that come from Professor Daniel Rodriguez have
been incredibly detailed, informative, and helpful. Professor Yan Song has provided me
tremendous mental support and has given me directions about my research as well as my life.
My deepest thanks go to my advisor and my mentor—Professor Asad J. Khattak. He is the
person that has been supporting my study and work, showing me the ropes in the academia,
and helping me become an independent researcher.
I want to thank my peers in the doctoral program, Tab, Alyssa, Mark, and especially
Beth for providing me endless help and encouragement. I am grateful to my parents, my
sister, and my husband, as well as the larger DCRP family of faculty and staff, for their
support and love during my doctoral study.
The data utilized in this dissertation was graciously provided by Institute for
Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) and the Triangle Council J. I want to thank
Ms. Leta Huntsinger and Mr. Paul Black for providing me exclusive access to the data.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
CHAPTER I: Introduction....................................................................................................1
Problem Definition........................................................................................................1
Research Objectives......................................................................................................4
Three Analyses..............................................................................................................4
Contribution..................................................................................................................6
Chapter Structure........................................................................................................10
CHAPTER II: Review of Relevant Literature...................................................................12
Activity-Travel Pattern Studies...................................................................................12
The Built Environment and Travel Behavior..............................................................17
Summary.....................................................................................................................23
CHAPTER III: Conceptual Framework............................................................................26
A General Environment-Behavior Model...................................................................26
The Theory of Demand...............................................................................................28
How the Built Environment May Influence Activity Engagement and Travel..........31
CHAPTER IV. Research Design and Methods..................................................................43
Data Sources and Study Area.....................................................................................44
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Measuring the Built Environment...............................................................................46
Measuring Human Activity Patterns...........................................................................48
Measuring Individual Activity-Travel Behavior........................................................53
Variables and Models.................................................................................................54
Threats to Validity......................................................................................................66
CHAPTER V: Census Block Group Level Activity Pattern Analysis.............................71
Descriptive analysis....................................................................................................72
Activity Pattern Models..............................................................................................74
Travel Pattern Models.................................................................................................80
Key Findings and Limitations.....................................................................................83
CHAPTER VI: Individual Activity Space and Time Allocation Analysis.....................86
Descriptive Analysis...................................................................................................87
Activity Space Models................................................................................................92
Activity Time Allocation Models...............................................................................98
Travel Time Allocation Models................................................................................106
Key Findings and Limitations...................................................................................115
CHAPTER VII: Neighborhood Clusters, Activity Space, and Time Allocation...........119
Identification of Neighborhood Clusters..................................................................119
Mean Comparison.....................................................................................................123
Neighborhood Cluster Models..................................................................................128
Key Findings and Limitations...................................................................................138
CHAPTER VIII: Trip Distance and Duration Analysis.................................................140
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Descriptive analysis..................................................................................................141
Activity-Specific Distance Models...........................................................................143
Mode-Specific Duration Models...............................................................................148
Key Findings and Limitations...................................................................................155
CHAPTER IX: Summary, Discussion, and Conclusions................................................158
Summary of Findings................................................................................................159
Discussion.................................................................................................................167
Conclusions...............................................................................................................175
Limitations and Future Directions............................................................................180
References............................................................................................................................183

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