Impacts of land use mix on travel behavior: a simulation approach

Land use mix policy is an important instrument for travel behavior control. Therefore, the relationship between land use mix and travel behavior is the subject of many empirical studies. However, the conclusions of these studies are conflicting. Main factors causing the contradictions are identified. Simulations can potentially overcome these diversity causes. This paper presents such a simulation-based research. The simulation system includes an urban layout generation model and a travel behavior simulation model. After being calibrated by the medium-sized Dutch city Eindhoven, the system simulates travel behavior for different urban layouts with fixed land use variables except for the land use mix. The results showed linear, exponential, and inverted U shape relationships between land use mix at different spatial scales and travel behavior variables. The nonlinear relationships provided an explanation of the inconsistencies between different empirical results. This study also emphasized the importance of a well-balanced land use spatial structure at both neighborhood level and district level in practice.