Do Your Neighbors Affect Your Mode Choice? A Spatial Probit Model for Commuting to the Ohio State University

Neighborhood effects have recently become a focus of interest in transportation research, whereby transportation mode choice is not only affected by an individual’s characteristics and the physical conditions of the transportation system, but also by the mode choices of that individual’s neighbors. This study supports the neighborhood effects argument, using a spatial econometrics approach and data from The Ohio State University’s 2011 Campus Transportation Survey. A spatial probit model of commuters’ mode choices (auto versus non-auto) is estimated, accounting for spatial autocorrelation. The results reveal that the more non-auto (walking, bicycling, and transit) users are residing around an individual, the more attractive these modes become for this individual. In addition to these spatial effects, the results indicate that students are more likely to commute to campus by non-auto modes, as compared to faculty and staff, and that the probability of choosing non-auto modes decreases with distance from campus. Feeling of safety, duration of travel, flexibility of departure time, ability to make stops on the way to/from campus, and attitudes towards auto use (being a car patron or a captive user), also affect an individual’s mode choice. These findings provide campus transportation planners new insights on the factors influencing travel mode choices.