Does mixed-use development reduce travel distances?-empirical evidence from Tainan City Taiwan

Abstract

Mixed-use development has been regarded as important principle of planning and has also been recognized as a desirable zoning pattern to achieve a sustainable life style Also it is believed that mixed-use development can reduce trip distances However very few studies have been conducted to inspect the relationship between them Tainan City Taiwan was selected as the study area to investigate the relationship between mixed-use levels and average trip distances where a total of 752 traffic analysis zones were involved Mean Entropy was employed to measure the level of mixed-use by calculating the average entropy of neighbourhoods in each traffic analysis zone in which the different average level of mixed-use development the categories of land uses the trip purpose categories and the systems of urban activities were carefully inspected and discussed Data for this study were gathered from the Tainan Metropolitan Household Travel Survey in 2011 and the National Land Use Investigation of Taiwan in 2006 The travel survey data was grouped into 13 different travel types and the land use data was also classified into a system composed of 5 major urban activities The results indicate that there are different relationship patterns between the levels of mixed-use development and travel behaviour with different travel types Generally speaking mixed level correlates significantly negatively with the average distances travelled Home-based shopping and school (aged under 15) and dining travellers are willing to travel further for better choices up to 2 050 and 1 050 m respectively However home-based work home-based leisure and social and home-based other travel were not found to not significantly correlate with mixed level development which can help practitioners and governments making decisions and predict changes in travel behaviour more accurately In addition analysing the relationship between travel behaviour and built environments according to trip purposes may be the solution for the existing dilemma discussed in previous studies The methodology framework measurements for mixed level development and empirical experience in this paper can be referred to in the future

Date of Award	2016 Sept 1
Original language	English
Supervisor	Tzu-Chang Lee (Supervisor)