This seminar will discuss the causality issue, which has become one of the key questions in the debate over the relationship between the built environment and travel behavior. To ascertain whether changes to the built environment are a cost-effective way to change travel behavior, it is necessary to determine the magnitude of the effect. Further, it is important to understand if the observed influence of the built environment on travel behavior diminishes substantially once we control for self-selection.

This seminar will relay the content of a study that explores the causal effect of neighborhood type on travel behavior and the relationship between this effect and the observed influence of neighborhood type on travel behavior. This study also offers a basic tutorial for the propensity score approach and discusses its strengths and weaknesses for applications in the field of land use and travel behavior.