Neighborhood Crime and Travel Behavior: An Investigation of the Influence of Neighborhood Crime Rates on Mode Choice - Phase II
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: Little work has been done on the effects of neighborhood crimes on mode choice. While the threats posed by possible criminal activity in one’s neighborhood can play a major role in the decision to drive, take transit, walk or ride a bicycle, little empirical evidence guides public infrastructure investments, land use planning, or the allocation of police services. This report finds that high crime neighborhoods tend to discourage residents from walking or riding a bicycle; the odds of walking decrease by 17.25 percent for work trips and 61 percent for non-work trips. For transit access to work trips, the odds of choosing walking or biking to a transit station over driving decrease by almost half. On the other hand, high crime neighborhoods appear to encourage transit use. The odds of taking transit over choosing auto increase by 17.25 percent for work trips and 164 percent for non-work trips. Two possible explanations for the increase in transit use were explored: the mode choice models do not adequately account for the interplay between urban form and crime levels and mode choice; or, people who ride in cars or take transit may feel more protected when riding in a vehicle (the “neighborhood exposure hypothesis”). The report provides evidence that high crime neighborhoods encourage driving to transit stops and discourage walking or bicycling, lending support to the neighborhood exposure hypothesis.
Language: English
Subfield: Transportation
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2152238613