University of California Transportation Center

lmprovements m accesstbthty are increasingly suggested as strategies leading to a reduction in vehicular travel, congeshon, pollution and their related impacts This approach assumes that individuals, if offered an opportunity, are likely to reduce their travel It also assumes that accessibility-enhancing land-use changes will increase transit and non-motorized trips in lieu of automobile usage However, there are

numerous indications that people engage in excess travei and are not necessarily inclined to reduce it. This paper presents a number of hypotheses on the reasons for excess travel and the relationships among attitudes toward travel and responses to accesslbthty-enhancmg strategies It suggests that &fferent market segments are likely to respond to pohcy measures m different ways In particular, ffa large segment of the population prefers mobility over the reduced travel offered by accesslblhty Improvements, then such pohcles will be less effective than anticipated.