A microlevel analysis of residential context and travel time

The literature on the association between residential context and travel concentrates on distance traveled and modal choice, as these variables are the most important from an environmental perspective. Travel time has received less attention-an unfortunate oversight in our view, as people's travel decisions are determined by time rather than by distance. By using data from the 1998 Netherlands National Travel Survey, we have considered travel time associated with trip purpose and transport mode, and have shown that sociodemographic factors and residential context influence daily travel time. Gender, number of workers in the household, age, and education all have a significant impact on travel time. The effects of car ownership and household income are only indirect, operating through mode choice and activity participation. Travel time for car drivers tends to rise with the degree of urbanisation of the residential environment. Further, in the polycentric metropolitan region of the Randstad, travel times by car are greater than in the monocentric regions of the country. It is also shown that in the Netherlands cycling and walking are still important travel modes, especially for shopping purposes. These results may be attributed to the long history of urbanisation and to planning policy in the Netherlands.