EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN URBAN FORM AND TRAVEL TIME

The literature on the effects of urban form and travel concentrates on distance travelled and modal choice, since these variables are the most important from an environmental perspective. Travel time has received less attention, which is an unfortunate oversight in the authors' view, since people's travel decisions are determined by time rather than by distance. Using data from the 1998 Dutch National Travel Survey (OVG), the authors have considered travel time associated with trip purpose and transport mode and have shown that sociodemographic factors and urban form influence daily travel time. Gender, number of workers in the household, age, and education all have a significant impact on travel time. When selectivity bias has been corrected for, car ownership and household income are irrelevant to the determination of travel time. Travel time for car drivers tends to rise with the degree of urbanisation of the residential environment. Further, in the polycentric metropolitan region, called the Randstad, travel times by car are greater than in the monocentric regions of the country. It is also shown that in the Netherlands cycling and walking are still important travel modes, especially for shopping purposes. These results may be attributed to the long history of urbanisation in the Netherlands and Dutch planning policy. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E206647.