Comparing the impacts of local land use and urban spatial structure on household VMT and GHG emissions

Sungwon Lee and Bumsoo Lee

Journal of Transport Geography, 2020, vol. 84, issue C

Abstract: To highlight the role of sustainable urban spatial structure in reducing household vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and CO2 emissions, this empirical study of the 121 largest urban areas (UAs) in the U.S. compares the effects of local land use and UA scale spatial structure in a multilevel analysis framework. The results show that centralized population and mezzo scale jobs-housing balance as well as higher UA population density can significantly reduce VMT and CO2 emissions. The combined effects of all UA level variables, including population-weighted density (PWD), are found to be on par with the elasticity of VMT with regard to a census tract level compactness index. Further, we find that urban spatial structure moderates local urban form effects on travel behavior. For example, while 10% more compact census tracts are associated with 5% fewer VMT in UAs with the sample average PWD, such as St. Louis and Pittsburgh, this estimated local effect increases to 7.5% and 10% in UAs where PWD is as high as in Chicago and New York, respectively. The findings of this study strongly support policy programs that aim to boost “articulated densities” in the urban region and call for stronger institutional frameworks for regional planning.

Keywords: Urban form; Urban spatial structure; Sustainable transportation; Vehicle miles traveled; GHG emissions; Multilevel analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692319304971

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:84:y:2020:i:c:s0966692319304971

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2020.102694

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Transport Geography is currently edited by Frank Witlox

More articles in Journal of Transport Geography from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().