The effects of residential quarters´ built environment on travel behavior using PLS-SEM approach: A case study of nanshan district, Shenzhen

The effect of built environments on travel behavior is very complex and is also a hot topic in urban geography and urban planning. Taking Nanshan District, Shenzhen as a case, we adopt partial least square SEM to examine the relationship between BE of residential quarter land use and travel behavior to overcome the problems encountered in linear regression or logit regression. We measured the factors involved in built environment and travel behavior with six latent variables and set up the structure of the effects. The assessment of the model shows that the proposed measurement model and structural model proposed are acceptable. The analysis of the model indicates that the BE of residential land use can´t explain the travel distance and travel time well, which has been demonstrated in other works. The result also suggests that the good BE of residential land use will lead to more travel by cars, which is also not consistent with previous studies.