UCLA

The lack of a systematic behavioral framework for empirical studies of the influence of land use on travel raises questions regarding potential statistical bias. This article presents and assesses this debate in the language of economics to clarify the terms of the arguments and their underlying analytics. It also offers a discussion of modern empirical challenges and strategies. The article develops a general integration of land use into a travel demand framework, where land use potentially affects not only out-of-pocket and time costs of both travel and goods but also can affect travel utility directly. Thus it models built environment features that affect travel and consumer goods cost, in time and money, as well as quality with a view to study these issues in a great variety of settings. Finally, it discusses associated statistical challenges of this work and then develops an empirical model of path choice.