The socioeconomic and spatial factors that explain the affordability of daily travel for households

The aim of this paper is thus to analyze the impact of the characteristics of the residential zone and classical socioeconomic factors on the percentage of its budget each household spends on daily travel (the laffordabilityr of daily travel). It is based on the results of the Household Travel Survey conducted in the French city of Lyon in 2006. Several discrete choice models relating to the probability that a householdrs daily travel accounts for a low, moderate or high proportion of its income are tested. The first model considers all the households in the Lyon Urban Area. As one would expect from existing studies, it shows that the socioeconomic characteristics of a household have a more decisive influence on the affordability of its travel than its zone of residence. The most influential locational characteristic is distance from work. A second model considers the suburbs only and shows the positive impact of sub-centres. The other models take account of different categories of households with a view to showing that the effects of urban form differ according to the characteristics of households.