Abstract:
It is assumed that in new urban designs and compact cities, average travel distances tend to be shorter and more activities are linked in chains. As there is relatively little empirical evidence about the relationship between chain behavior and land use, especially from Europe, a study was done to obtain a better understanding of the influence of chains (referred to as tours) to test the hypothesis that compact urban forms reduce travel. The results indicate that higher densities lead not only to greater activity and greater tour demand but also to more complex tours. Although greater tour frequencies reduce mean tour distance, daily distance traveled increases. Moreover, complex tours have an encouraging effect on both tour distance and daily distance traveled. This confirms the hypothesis and previous evidence that more frequent tours and more stops per tour in high-density areas lead to more travel.
