United States Department of Transportation
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Examining consumer behavior and travel choices.
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2013-02-01
[PDF-2.22 MB]
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Abstract:This study represents a first attempt to answer a few of the questions that have arisen concerning multimodal transportation investments and the
impacts of mode shifts on the business community. This research aims to merge the long history of scholarly work that examines the impacts of
the built environment on non-work travel with the relatively new interest in consumer spending by mode of travel. This empirical study of travel
choices and consumer spending across 89 businesses in the Portland metropolitan area shows there are important differences between the amounts
customers spend on average at various businesses by their mode of travel. However, these differences become less pronounced when we control
for demographics of the customer and other attributes of the trip. This study of consumer spending and travel choices has some compelling
findings that suggest some key spending and frequency differences by mode of travel that will likely invigorate the discussion of the economic
impacts of these modes.
Key findings are: 1) Bicyclists, pedestrians and transit riders are competitive consumers: When demographics and socioeconomics are controlled
for, mode choice does not have a statistically significant impact on consumer spending at convenience stores, drinking establishments and
restaurants. When trip frequency is accounted for, the average monthly expenditures by customer modes of travel reveal that bicyclists, transit
users and pedestrians are competitive consumers and, for all businesses except supermarkets, spend more on average than those who drive and 2)
The built environment matters: We support previous literature and find that residential and employment density, the proximity to rail transit, and
the amount of automobile and bicycle parking are all important in explaining the use of non-automobile modes. In particular, provision of bike
parking and bike corrals are significant predictors of bike mode share at the establishment level.
Other findings lend more insight into the relationship between consumer behavior and travel choices. For the non-work destinations studied, the
automobile remains the dominant mode of travel. Patrons are largely arriving by private vehicle to most of the destinations in this study,
particularly to grocery stores where larger quantities of goods tend to be purchased. But, high non-automobile mode shares and short travel
distances exist in areas of concentrated urban activity.
In sum, this study provides some empirical evidence to answer the questions of business owners about how mode shifts might impact their market
shares and revenues. More work is needed to better understand the implications of future changes and to provide a robust assessment of the returns
on these investments and their economic impacts.
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