Validating the Relationship Between Urban Form and Travel Behavior with Vehicle Miles Travelled

Abstract

The validity of the influence of urban form on travel behavior has been a topic of interest in travel behavior research. Empirical research shows that urban form influences travel behavior causing less travel impacts. However, according to the conventional travel impact assessment following the ITE?s (Institute of Transportation Engineers) Trip Generation Handbook, developments with higher levels of urban form measures will generate a greater travel impacts because they generate higher number of trips. The ITE Trip Generation Handbook is typically used as a guideline to estimate the number of trips generated by a development. The hypothesis made in the present research is that a development defined with higher levels of land use mix, street connectivity and residential density will generate a higher number of trips because of the greater accessibility but they will be shorter in length. Therefore, the effective distance travelled will be less even though higher numbers of trips are generated. Considering the distance travelled on a roadway will be an appropriate unit for measuring the travel impacts, the research argues that VMT (Vehicle Miles Travelled) can be a better measurement unit than the number of trips to validate the influence of urban form on travel behavior.