Impact of Individual and Urban Traits and Urban Form on Vehicle Hours Traveled

Abstract

This study is aimed at investigating correlations regarding the impacts of individual traits, urban character, and urban form on Vehicle Hours Traveled (VHT). It takes the approach of focusing on the 5Ds, major elements of urban character and urban form that influence VHT. The 5Ds encompass the widely-known factors for reducing VHT through the 3Ds (density, diversity, design) introduced by Cervero and Kockelman (1997), as well as two additional elements of distance to transit and destination accessibility as appended by Ewing et al. (2008). This study utilizes individual traits, transportation data on individuals, and statistical data on cities provided by each city within micro data at the 2% level from the Micro Data Service System (MDSS) of the 2005 Population and Housing Census Data. It applies the Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) to analyze 79 cities with a population between 0.1 and 3 million and their residents, taking into account both the individual and urban levels. The 5Ds demonstrate a significant relation to the reduction of VHT. However, we conclude that density, a conventional element for enabling a reduction in VHT in Western cities, does not have a similarly great impact within the context of Korean cities. This research result is significant in that it provides basic data for the establishment of policies regarding the reduction of commuting time by car.