Household Excess Travel and Neighborhood Characteristics: Associations and Trade-Offs

Excess commuting, the amount of travel not required by the distribution of jobs and houses, has been used to examine commuting efficiency and the relevance of commuting for location decisions. This study proposes an alternative estimation approach of excess travel using activity diaries, extending it to non-work travel, and capturing inter-household variation. The proposed method is based on residential relocation, given the destinations to be visited. The approach is demonstrated through a case study of the Research Triangle Area in North Carolina. The results show that households can achieve an average of 30% reduction in daily travel distance by hypothetically moving to locations that minimize travel. Substantial variation in excess travel is revealed among Triangle households. A regression analysis further investigates whether land use patterns at the residence can explain some of the inter-household variation in excess travel after controlling for household location choice factors, family structure, and socio-economic traits. Gains in travel efficiency—lower levels of observed and excess travel—are found in neighborhoods with higher density, retail mix, and street connectivity, suggesting households in such neighborhoods are taking advantage of the travel reduction afforded by the environment. Beside the association between land use and travel efficiency, results suggest trade-offs between travel efficiency and other desirable neighborhood attributes such as safety and school quality.