Transport facilities and residential choice behavior : a model of multi-person choice processes

The aim of this paper is to gain further insight into the way in which residential location choice behavior is related to the existence of public transport facilities and to distance to the workplace. More specifically, the objectives of this paper are twofold. The first objective is to gain more insight into the influence of the characteristics of residential locations on residential location choice behavior. The selected characteristics are related to three aspects: (a) the residence itself (dwelling type, costs, type of neighborhood); (b) the transportation facilities in the residential neighborhood (frequency of bus services, availability of railway station, accessibility to main road system); and (c) the travel time from the residential location to the workplace (car, public transportation, and bike). The second objective is to test a model of joint (multi-person) decision making behavior. The results of this research indicate that the preference for a particular residential location is highly dependent on the characteristics of the dwelling and its environment, and to a lesser extent on the travel time to the workplace. The characteristics pertaining to transportation facilities seem to be less important. These results imply that transportation policy is not necessarily an effective instrument to influence residential choice behavior and the associated mobility. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 31st European Congress of the RSAI, Lisbon, Portugal, August 1991.