Matthew A Coogan

The Role of Personal Values, Urban Form, and Auto Availability in the Analysis of Walking for Transportation

Purpose. To examine the association of personal values, the built environment, and auto availability with walking for transportation. Setting. Participants were drawn from 11 U.S. metropolitan areas with good transit services. Subjects. 865 adults who had recently made or were contemplating making a residential move. Measures. Respondents reported if walking was their primary mode for nine trip purposes. “Personal values” reflected ratings of 15 variables assessing attitudes about urban and environmental attributes, with high reliability (α = 0.85). Neighborhood form was indicated by a three-item scale. Three binary variables were created to reflect (1) personal values, (2) neighborhood form, and (3) auto availability. Design. The association with walking was reported for each of the three variables, each combination of two variables, and the combination of three variables. An analysis of covariance was applied, and a hierarchic linear regression model was developed. Results. All three variables were associated with walking, and all three variables interacted. The standardized coefficients were 0.23 for neighborhood form, 0.21 for autos per person, and 0.18 for personal values. Conclusion. Positive attitudes about urban attributes, living in a supportive neighborhood, and low automobile availability significantly predicted more walking for transportation. A framework for further research is proposed in which a factor representing the role of the automobile is examined explicitly in addition to personal values and urban form.

When Worlds Collide: Observations on the Integration of Epidemiology and Transportation Behavioral Analysis in the Study of Walking

Since obesity has emerged as a public health crisis in the United States, the factors that influence physical activity are of interest to both epidemiologists and transportation researchers. This article describes different approaches taken by the two disciplines to this issue. “Utilitarian” walking to accomplish a task, as opposed to structured exercise, could be a highly sustainable way for people to achieve recommended levels of physical activity. Transportation planners have begun to investigate factors of urban form and transportation services that influence the choice to walk. Epidemiologists have become more aware of the importance of factors in the built and social environment that could influence health behaviors like walking. Few transportation studies focus on the generation of the utilitarian walk trip as the key variable; rather, they include it in more general discussions of urban form. Likewise, most epidemiologic studies have not focused on utilitarian walking, but have folded it into an overall measure of physical activity that emphasizes structured exercise. Further transportation research should examine the effects of improved mobility services in addition to alterations of the built environment. Integration of epidemiologic and transportation behavioral research could enhance our understanding of the role of urban and transportation factors on physical activity.

Exploring Market Support for New Products and Services for Transit and Walking: New Market Research Approach

This paper concerns the relationship between mobility products and services and the propensity to change travel behavior. In an online panel survey, 501 respondents answered questions about their attitudes toward increasing their use of transit and walking. The questions first established base conditions for variables specified by the theory of planned behavior. Respondents were then exposed to seven products and services. A follow-up set of questions revealed shifts in key attitudes. New products and services may influence the travelers personal inclination to change modal behavior, belief that a change in modal behavior might be socially acceptable, and belief or self-confidence that he or she can change modal behavior. These three attitudinal categories were examined for four market segments, two more positive and two more negative. The positive segments included the transit loyalists, who were already heavy users of transit, and the environmental mode changers, who were not heavy transit users but who wanted to help the environment. Both positive segments significantly shifted their ratings of the social acceptability of transit with the improvements. However, the segments differed in terms of what factors were associated with the improved social acceptability. For the environmental mode changers, the strongest association was with concern about being lost or stranded on public transportation, whereas for the transit loyalists, the strongest association was with being able to depend on public transportation to be timely. However, it is unclear from this research which products and services contribute to improved social acceptability.

Intercity Passenger Rail in the Context of Dynamic Travel Markets

This report develops an analytical framework or structural plan to improve understanding of how current or potential intercity travelers make the choice to travel by rail. This framework provides guidance for use by practitioners and decision makers considering alternative planning, operating, financing, service, and capital investment strategies for intercity passenger rail service in existing and potential travel markets; and it allows users to evaluate how mode choice is affected by a variety of changing and evolving parameters. The framework developed through this research is based on an examination of fundamental values, preferences, and attitudes affecting travel mode choice. Identification of relevant parameters extracted from this analysis served as input to a comprehensive survey used to gather necessary data for developing an Integrated Choice/Latent Variable (ICLV) forecasting model. Building directly on the results calculated in this forecasting model is the scenario testing tool, a series of interconnected spreadsheets which make available to the analyst a wide variety of data and procedures needed in the application of quick-turn-around scenario testing. Together, the ICLV forecasting model and scenario testing tool provide a sophisticated framework for analyzing intercity travel behavior.

Improving Public Transportation Technology Implementations and Anticipating Emerging Technologies

This report summarizes the value of current technologies used in public transportation, describes methods for improving the success of technology implementation, and identifies five promising emerging technologies with application for transit agencies. This report may be used specifically by chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief information officers (CIOs) of transit agencies, transit managers, program and project managers, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) professionals, and the public transportation industry in general.

Bibliography and Technical Appendices to Intercity Passenger Rail in the Context of Dynamic Travel Markets

This report documents the resources used to develop NCRRP Report 4: Intercity Passenger Rail in the Context of Dynamic Travel Markets. This report explains the analytical framework and models developed to improve understanding of how current or potential intercity travelers make the choice to travel by rail. The project bibliography covers seven themes: trends and differences by generation; long distance travel; attitudinal theories applied to transportation; hybrid models to integrate attitudes; environmental motivations and strategies; information technologies and the productivity of time; and application of market segmentation techniques. Three technical appendices also are included that cover: integrated choice/latent variable and hybrid model development; model application for scenario analysis; and documentation for the structural equation models.