Where and how should we build our homes? - Residential location, activity participation and travel behavior

The project has investigated how the location and neighborhood characteristics of dwellings in Norwegian major urban areas influence residents' travel behavior, level of physical activity and health. Internationally, a purely quantitative approach has dominated research on this topic, often with little theoretical reflection on underlying causal mechanisms. In contrast to the mainstream approach, the project has placed much emphasis on uncovering causal mechanisms by which residential location and neighborhood characteristics influence travel behavior. The project has theorized the role of urban spatial structures as causes of human behavior and has combined qualitative and quantitative research methods in order to integrate knowledge about causal influences at the level of the individual and at the city/urban regional level. The quantitative part includes comparisons of respondents living in different geographical contexts as well as separate analyses of recent movers. Greater Oslo and Greater Stavanger are the two main empirical cases, with supplementary analyses of Bergen and Trondheim based on national travel survey data. The qualitative interviews suggest that built environment characteristics influence travel through an interplay with time-geographical restrictions and the inhabitants? rationales for location of activities and travel mode choice. For most travel purposes, people do not necessarily choose the closest facility, but travel a bit farther if they can then find a better facility. This is especially true for workplaces, where the worker must not only find the job attractive but also be selected by the employer for the job. Travel distances to jobs and specialized non-work facilities therefore depend more on the location of the dwelling relative to large concentrations of facilities than on the distance to the closest facilities. In monocentric cities such as Oslo, inner-city residents can reach many facilities within a short distance from the dwelling and therefore do not have to travel long, even if they are very selective about the quality. In polycentric Stavanger, the main concentrations of jobs and other facilities are differently located, with the highest number of jobs in a suburban center (Forus) and the main city center as the dominant concentration of other facilities. Historical city centers also often offer "atmospheric" qualities making them attractive to visit. Since distances are often short and conditions for driving cumbersome, inner-city residents often prefer to go by bike, on foot or by mass transit. For suburbanites, non-motorized travel is often time-consuming and physically exhausting. The provision of mass transit is also usually poorer in the outer areas, resulting in car dependency and a higher amount of car travel. Our questionnaire material - both the cross-sectional analyses and the analyses of recent movers - confirms these mechanisms, although considerable individual differences of course exist. In monocentric Oslo, commuting distances rise substantially the further away from the city center the workers live. In polycentric Stavanger, commuting distances are primarily influenced by the location of the dwelling relative to the suburban employment center Forus, and only secondarily by its distance to the main city center. Local built environment characteristics play a greater role for trip distances to non-work destinations, particularly in Oslo. Overall, inner-city respondents in Oslo drive less than one-fifth the distance by car for trips within the urban region as the outer-suburban residents do, and in Stavanger less than a half. The distance to the city center also influences car ownership, with increased car ownership resulting from outward moving and reduced car ownership when moving closer to the center. Including trips outside the urban region, car-driving distances in both Greater Oslo and Greater Stavanger tend to increase the farther from the city center the dwelling is located. A similar pattern exists in Bergen and Trondheim. Compared to the strong influences on travel behavior, the location and neighborhood characteristics of the dwelling play a moderate role for physical activity and health. Inner-city dwellers' higher level of non-motorized travel is partly counterweighed by less time spent on other forms of physical exercise. We find no tendency of "compensatory" increased weekend driving among inner-city dwellers, but these residents do make somewhat more flights, probably due to less money spent on car ownership and driving. The distance from the dwelling to lower-order centers also affects travel behavior, but these effects are mostly weaker than those of the distance to the main city center. Polycentric urban development, often promoted as a sustainability strategy, is thus less favorable than densification close to the main city center in order to reduce travel distances and car driving while promoting transit and active travel modes.

Addressing all the prioritized sub-themes of the research call: "residential development", "coordinated land use and transport solutions" as well as "better urban quality", the overall research question of the project is: How do the location and neighborh ood characteristics of residential areas affect travel behavior, greenhouse gas emissions from motorized travel, physical activity, and selected health parameters in the context of Norwegian urban regions? Investigating the following sub-questions, the pr oject will improve the international state-of-the-art knowledge on topics hitherto insufficiently covered by research: 1. How does intra-metropolitan travel behavior vary with the location and neighborhood characteristics of residential areas, controllin g for sociodemographic differences, and what is the role of attitude-based residential self-selection in explaining geographical differences in travel behavior? 2. On which rationales do people base their choices concerning activity participation, activit y locations and travel modes, and how does the prioritization between different rationales vary with trip purposes and across population groups? 3. What is the nature of the relationship between the location and neighborhood characteristics of the dwellin g and car ownership? 4. To what extent do the influences of residential location on travel vary between population groups, monocentric vs. polycentric city regions, and city size? 5. To what extent do rebound effects exist between intra-metropolitan trav el and long-distance holiday trips? 6. To what extent and in what ways are people's physical activities and use of green areas influenced by the residential location? 7. How do selected health indicators vary with residential location, taking into accou nt sociodemographic and attitudinal differences? The project will be carried out by means of a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, using the four largest Norwegian urban regions as cases.