LOCATIONAL PREFERENCES AND TRANSPORTATION MODE CHOICE OF DIFFERENT SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROUPS IN THE US: A space syntax included case study of two gridded and two non-gridded cities. (original) (raw)
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Texas Tech University, 2016
The theory of ‘natural movement’ postulates that configuration of the urban grid is an important generator of aggregate patterns of movement in urban areas (Hillier, Penn, Hanson, Grajewski, & Xu, 1993). Retail and commercial land uses locate themselves at these configurationally hotspot locations to take advantage of the economic opportunities created by movement i.e. passing customers (Hillier, 1996). These concentrations of retail and commercial activities are also the work places for a good number of people and in turn, will influence the choices of residential locations. Since journey-distance and journey-time are two very important factors influencing transport mode choice, (Plaut, 2005; Pucher & Dijkstra, 2003; Schwanen & Mokhtarian, 2005; Wardman, Tight, & Page, 2007) It is hypothesized that the locations of retails and commercial areas as understood by their configurational index, will first affect the choices of residential locations and also influence choices of commuting mode. This hypothesis is tested in four US cities of Boston, Pittsburgh, Lubbock, and Salt Lake City using data collected from online open source database of the respective cities and US census bureau. Space Syntax topological and angular analyses of CAD drawn axial lines and street centerlines extracted from GIS maps are performed for all cities. ArcGIS spatial analysis tools were applied to combine land use, socio-economic & demographic, transportation and Space Syntax variables to the scale of census block-groups that was selected as the study unit. Multiple regression analyses are carried out to identify relevant and significant variables explaining each mode of transport. The findings indicate that Space Syntax variables play an important role in explaining choice of commuting mode. In addition, several linear regression analyses are performed to examine the socio-economic and demographic pattern in the context of street configuration. The results indicate that renters and non-family households are configurationally separated from homeowners and family households. Renters and non-family households live in configurationally integrated areas where businesses are located and therefore are likely to walk. On the contrary, homeowners and family households live in configurationally segregated areas and tend to drive to work. The results of comparative analysis between gridded and non-gridded cities indicates that closeness variable called ‘integration’ and between-ness variable called ‘choice’ are relevant to explain walking and driving modes in non-gridded and gridded cities respectively.
Land Use and Transport Mode Choice: Space Syntax Analysis of American Cities
Natural movement theory from space syntax literature postulates that configuration of the urban grid is an important generator of aggregate patterns of movement in urban areas (Hillier et al. 1993). In addition, movement economy theory asserts that retail and commercial activities migrate to configurationally hotspot locations to take advantage of the economic opportunities created by movement (Hillier 1996). These concentrations of retail and commercial activities are also the work places for a good number of people and, in turn, will influence the choices of residential locations. Since journey-distance and time are two very important factors influencing transport mode choice,),this paper hypothesized that the locations of retails and commercial areas as understood by their space syntax derived configurational index, will first affect the choices of residential locations and then influence choices of commuting mode. This hypothesis is tested in four US cities of Boston, Pittsburgh, Lubbock, and Salt Lake City using data collected from online open source database of the respective cities and US census bureau. Space Syntax topological and angular analyses of CAD drawn axial lines and street centerlines extracted from GIS maps are performed for all cities. ArcGIS spatial analysis tools are applied to combine land use, socioeconomic , demographic, transportation and Space Syntax variables to the scale Land Use and Transport Mode choices: Space Syntax Analysis of American Cities Girmay Kifle Berhie and Saif Haq How to cite: Berhie, Girmay Kifle and Saif Haq. 2017. " Land Use and Transport Mode choices: Space Syntax Analysis of American Cities " Enquiry 14 (1): 1-22.. of census block-groups that was selected as the study unit. Multiple regression analyses are carried out to identify relevant and significant variables explaining each mode of transport. The findings indicate that Space Syntax variables play an important role in explaining choice of commuting mode. In addition, several linear regression analyses are performed to examine the land use and transport mode choice in the context of street configuration. The results indicate that commercial and retail concentration were positively correlated with integration cores. Following general trend of space syntax findings, commuters tend to live at configurationally segregated areas while walkers and bicycle riders tend to live in configurationally integrated areas where commercial and retail activities are concentrated. Regarding the differences of layout types, the results of comparative analysis between gridded and non-gridded cities indicates that closeness variable called 'integration' and betweenness variable called 'choice' are relevant to explain walking and driving modes in non-gridded and gridded cities respectively.
Land Use and Transport Mode choices: Space Syntax Analysis of American Cities
Enquiry A Journal for Architectural Research
Natural movement theory (from space syntax literature) postulates that configuration of the urban grid is an important generator of aggregate patterns of movement in urban areas (Hillier et al. 1993). In addition, movement economy theory asserts that retail and commercial activities migrate to configurationally hotspot locations to take advantage of the economic opportunities created by movement (Hillier 1996). These concentrations of retail and commercial activities are also the work places for a good number of people and in turn, will influence the choices of residential locations. Since journey-distance and time are two very important factors influencing transport mode choice, (Plaut 2005; Wardman, Tight, and Page 2007; Pucher and Dijkstra 2003; Schwanen and Mokhtarian 2005). This paper hypothesized that the locations of retails and commercial areas as understood by their space syntax derived configurational index, will first affect the choices of residential locations and also i...
The theory of ‘natural movement’ postulates that configuration of the urban grid is an important generator of aggregate patterns of movement in urban areas (Hillier et al. 1993). Retail and commercial land uses locate themselves at these configurationally hotspot locations to take advantage of the economic opportunities created by movement i.e. passing customers (Hillier 1996). These retail and commercial areas are also work places for a good number of people and will influence the choice of some residential locations. Since journey-distance and journey-time are two very important factors influencing propensity for walking or cycling (Plaut 2005; Wardman et al. 2007; Pucher & Dijkstra 2003; Schwanen & Mokhtarian 2005) we hypothesize that the sites of retail areas as understood by their configurational index, will first affect the choices of residential locations and hence also influence the use of non-motorized transport (NMT) particularly walking and bicycling. We test this hypothesis in the cities of Pittsburgh and Lubbock (USA) using data collected from American Community Survey and US census bureau. Topological and angular configuration analyses of CAD drawn axial lines and street centrelines derived from GIS maps were performed for both cities. ArcGIS spatial analysis tools were applied to combine land use, socio-economic & demographic, transportation and Space Syntax variables to the scale of census block-groups that was selected as the study unit. Statistical analyses including stepwise and best-subset regressions were carried out to select relevant and significant variables explaining the use of NMT. The findings indicate that choice of transportation mode is significantly explained by multiple variables in which configuration features prominently. In the paper, we also describe and test our assumptions, comment on the selection of areas instead of axial lines as units of analysis, and postulate on the applicability of this research on creating sustainable communities.
Space syntax: A method to measure urban space related to social, economic and cognitive factors
The Virtual And The Real in Planning and Urban Design: Perspectives, practices and applications, 2018
Configurational analyses represented by the method of syntax allows the modelling of a city that links intuition and science, and it can be used for designing and planning cities, as well as in research (Hillier 2009). Developed by Bill Hillier and his colleagues at the University College London, it has been applied in urban studies since the 1980s. This method consists of calculating configurative spatial relationships in built environments. According to Hillier, space syntax demands four elements in urban analyses. Firstly, space syntax means operating with a concise definition of urban space. Secondly, it offers a family of techniques for analysing cities as networks of space formed by the placing, grouping and orientation of buildings. Thirdly, it involves a set of techniques for observing how these networks of space relate to functional patterns, such as movement, land use, area differentiation, migration patterns, and even social wellbeing and malaise. Fourthly, based on the empirical results arising from the first two aspects, space syntax makes it possible to develop a set of theories about how urban space networks relate in general to the social, economic and cognitive factors which shape them, and how they are affected by them (Hillier et al. 2007). Recently, the Space Syntax toolkit has been integrated into the open source geographic information system known as QuantumGIS. Modelling the real world Space syntax measures the two primary all-to-all (all street segments to all others) relationships. Firstly, it measures the to-movement-or accessibility-potential of each street segment with respect to all others. Secondly, it measures the through-movement potential of each street segment with respect to all pairs of others. Each of these two types of relational patterns can be weighted according to three different definitions of distance. The metric distance measures the city's street and road network as a system of shortest paths, while the
It has been argued that different urban configurations -planned vs. organic, treelike vs. grid like -perform differently when it comes to the intensity and distribution of pedestrian flows, built density and land uses. However, definitions of urban configurations are often rather abstract, ill-defined and at worse end in fixed stereotypes hiding underlying spatial complexity. Recent publications define morphological typologies based on quantitative variables (e.g. Barthelemy, Proceedings of the 11 th Space Syntax Symposium 44.2 QUANTITATIVE COMPARISON OF CITIES: Distribution of street and building types based on density and centrality measures and solve some of these shortcomings. These approaches contribute to the discussion of types in two ways: firstly, they allow for the definition of types based on multiple variables in a precise and repeattable manner, enabling the study of large samples and the comparison between both cities and regions; secondly, they frame design choices in terms of types without being fixed and so open up for design explorations where the relation between the variables can be challenged to propose new types.
Quantifying Spatial Characteristics of Cities
Urban Studies, 2002
Land-use initiatives represent a potentially effective tool for coping with the kinds of mobility pattern that North American cities faced in the 1990s and still face in the present century. As fine-grained data about land use and travel activity become available, they provide the opportunity to improve our understanding of the linkage between land use and transport. This paper examines in detail the neighbourhood characteristics that could affect mode choice on the work and non-work tour. Neighbourhood characteristics include land use, network and accessibility-related characteristics which are quantified through the use of geographical information systems (GIS). Ultimately, such measures could be used in conjunction with detailed surveys of travel behaviour to specify, calibrate and use models of modal choice and residential choice that are more sensitive to the fine-grained spatial structure of neighbourhoods and transport corridors in metropolitan areas. Micro-level data for the...
Proceedings of the 11th Space Syntax Symposium, 2017
It has been argued that different urban configurations-planned vs. organic, treelike vs. grid like-perform differently when it comes to the intensity and distribution of pedestrian flows, built density and land uses. However, definitions of urban configurations are often rather abstract, ill-defined and at worse end in fixed stereotypes hiding underlying spatial complexity. Recent publications define morphological typologies based on quantitative variables (e.g. Barthelemy, 2015; Serra, 2013a; Gil et al., 2012; Berghauser Pont and Haupt, 2010) and solve some of these shortcomings. These approaches contribute to the discussion of types in two ways: firstly, they allow for the definition of types based on multiple variables in a precise and repeattable manner, enabling the study of large samples and the comparison between both cities and regions; secondly, they frame design choices in terms of types without being fixed and so open up for design explorations where the relation between the variables can be challenged to propose new types. This paper explores the typologies defined by Serra (2013a) and Berghauser Pont and Haupt (2010) further, as these target two of the most important morphological entities of urban form, namely the street network and the building structure. The purpose is to gain a better understanding of how types are composed and distributed within and across different cities. The method is based on GIS and statistical modeling of four cities to allow for a comparative analysis of four cities: Amsterdam, London, Stockholm and Gothenburg. For the street network, we process the Road-Centre-line maps to obtain a clean network model, then run segment angular analysis to calculate the space syntax measures of betweenness at different metric radii, defining the " centrality palimpsest " (Serra, 2013a). For the building structure, we process elevation data to obtain building height, then run accessible density analysis for all building density metrics (FSI, GSI, OSR, L) using the Place Syntax Tool (Berghauser Pont and Marcus, 2014). The street and building types are defined using cluster analysis (unsupervised classification), following a similar approach to Serra (2013a). The result is a typology of street (´paths´) and building types (´places´), with different profiles of centrality and density across scales. The spatial distribution and frequency of these types across the four cities gives an objective summary of their spatial structure, identifying common as well as unique traits.
Probing different centralities in city regions: a space-syntactic approach
2005
This paper presents preliminary findings from the first attempt at extending the spatialconfigurational analysis of individual cities’ street network to the city-regional scale street network, hoping to capture simultaneously the inter- and intra-settlement spatio-functional dynamics that may explain different centralities – historically evolved centres, planned centres, emergent metropolitan centres at various spatial scales – in rapidly expanding city regions. This involves the analysis of aggregate space-syntactic properties, multiple-radii integration and choice measures of the complete spatial network of two rapidly developing, geo-morphologically varied, Malaysian city regions – Penang Island and Johor Bahru District. It is demonstrated that spatial network analysis is an effective tool for studying different centralities in mostly planned, spatially non-contiguous city regions. The spatial network approach aptly encapsulates cityregional morphological variations; gives effect...