New Methods to Measure Urban Environments for Consumer Behavior Research: Individual Access Corridor Analysis of Environmentally Sustainable Travel to Rapid Transit

The primary goal of this research is to develop and test new methods to measure the urban environment. Three core principles (resolution, respondent, replicability) comprise the central evaluative framework guiding the exploration and development of these new methods. They are introduced in this dissertation as the "3R principles of methodological development." They guide the use of the IAC to capture high-resolution information about the urban environment (land use activity, transport access, and traveler perceptions) that can be uniquely attributed to each individual survey respondent in a replicable manner. This information, in turn, can support reliable and valid analyses of the influence of the urban environment on consumer behavior that are meaningful, rigorous, and generalizable.;The secondary goal of this research is to test these new measures as inputs for travel behavior analyses of a relatively standard intercept travel survey---the 2008 Station Profile Survey for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. Improving measures for these analyses is important because substantial effort and money is currently being spent on influencing traveler behavior in suburban/non-CBD areas, and for trips to transit. As most morning commuters across the U.S. drive to rapid transit stations, and over relatively short distances, substantial sustainability benefits could be realized by coaxing even a small fraction of these drivers to use "green" non-motorized travel (NMT) modes of bicycling and walking.;In terms of its primary goal, this research shows that capturing high-resolution information of the urban environment can be uniquely attributed to each individual survey respondent in a replicable manner to support both reliable and valid analyses of consumer behavior. Reliability of these new methods and measures is determined by: (1) their ability to objectively and uniformly capture and calculate factors of interest; and (2) their provision of similar results through repeated experiments. Validity is established via: (1) a thorough in-depth review of empirical research, literature, and urban theory to identify particular aspects of the urban environment they represent; and (2) an examination of the findings emerging from numerous models, with respect to interpretability, sensibility and usefulness.;Specific achievements include the following: (1) This research supports the use of the IAC to examine the unique intermediate area of a trip between its origin and destination, especially when examining NMT behavior (bicycling and walking). (2) This research enriches our understanding of how to measure and analyze land use activity, beyond the currently used measures of "diversity", where entropy indices have been widely used as a proxy for land use mixture. Specifically, this research tests the best methods for managing vast amounts of complicated land use information, classified at the parcel-level, to be meaningfully applied to analyses of consumer behavior. (3) This research complements the current body of literature on travel behavior and the built environment by more formally recognizing and including measures of the functional/operational qualities of urban environments, as well as measures of physical infrastructure, urban form, and "perceptual qualities" (Ewing et al., 2006; Ewing & Handy, 2009). (4) This research provides valuable insight on transportation policies and urban design practices that will help communities and regions move more deliberately toward sustainability objectives, such as reducing auto use, GHG emissions, and congestion, while simultaneously improving air quality, street livability, the building of social capital, and enhancing opportunities for physical activity.;In terms of the second goal of this research---testing the relationship of these new measures of the urban environment to rapid transit access travel behavior---they are proven to support reliable and valid findings that provide useful, nuanced insight into the influence of the urban environment on rapid transit access mode choice. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...