Moving into and within cities - Interactions of residential change and the travel behavior and implications for integrated land use and transport planning strategies

The paper analyzes the interactions between built environment, travel attitude and travel behavior in order to reflect integrated land use and transportation (ILUT) strategies. The analysis is based on qualitative data derived from in-depth interviews with suburban-urban relocators within the city region of Hamburg. The dataset combines in-depth information on the rationales of relocation choice with detailed information on travel behavior. The study contributes empirically based hypotheses to research gaps regarding backgrounds, motivations and justifications for choosing traffic-reducing neighborhoods, the mechanisms of residential self-selection and so-called 'reverse causality'. It presents a specific methodological approach, aiming at generating a comprehensive understanding of the aforementioned interactions. The findings support the assumption that travel related aspects have a decisive impact on the suburban-urban relocators' decision to leave a suburban environment. Within the range of factors, the absence of good options to reach destinations by walking, cycling or public transport is the dominant reason for leaving. Background factors such as biographical aspects that explain how, why and in which cases environmental characteristics are perceived negatively are identified. Moreover, residential biography is identified as highly relevant for the location choice as it shapes perceptions of and emotional links to living environments in general and to certain neighborhoods. When looking at kilometers traveled by car, decisive factors for adapting sustainable travel patterns are the density of activity locations as well as parking restrictions. It can be concluded that the existence of residential self-selection does not contest ILUT strategies but suggests adding complementary instruments aiming at influencing perceptions and/or spatial dissonance.