Influence of Urban Form on Travel Behavior in Four Neighborhoods of Shanghai

Abstract

Since the 1980s, cities in China have expanded tremendously due to fast-paced economic growth and urbanization. Much of the new urban development has departed significantly from the traditional high density, pedestrian and bicycle oriented urban form that used to characterize Chinese cities. Has the change in urban form generated significant effects on people’s travel behavior? This is a question of great practical importance for urban planners in China as they strive toward sustainable development. The question is also of considerable scholarly interest, because it can potentially lead to improved understanding of the relationship between the built environment and travel behavior. This paper presents an effort to answer the question through a study of travel behavior in four neighborhoods of Shanghai, which have contrasting urban form characteristics. A travel survey was conducted in 2001, which generated 1,817 valid observations for our empirical analysis. In testing the relationship between travel behavior and the built environment, two statistical models are estimated. One is an ordinary least squares regression of trip distance, and the other is a multiple logistic regression of mode choice. Results from the modeling exercise indicate clearly that in the traditional neighborhood with relatively high densities and small street blocks, trip distance is much shorter and the chance for choosing walk or bike as travel mode is much greater. These findings suggest that recent transformation of the built environment in Chinese cities has made it less conducive to the “greening” of urban transportation.

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