Knowledge-workers and the sustainable city: the travel consequences of car-related job-perks

Attracting firms in knowledge and technology intensive (KTI) sectors is highly desired at both the national and the regional level as a powerful engine of economic growth. Due to fierce competition in KTI sectors and national taxation policies, KTI firms often attract high-quality employees by offering car-related job perks as additional incentives to wage. In Canada, car allowance is offered by 46% of the employers to attract highly-skilled workers. In Israel, 61% of knowledge-workers in the KTI sectors receive a company-car with respect to 16% of workers in other sectors. In the U.K., car-related job perks are offered by 18% of the employers. This study focuses on the impact of car-related job-perks on the travel behavior of knowledge-workers. The importance of this issue derives from the impact of the travel behavior of knowledge-workers on congested transportation networks in metropolitan areas, as knowledge-based economy tends to concentrate mainly in metropolitan regions. This study applies discrete choice models in order to analyze the impact of company-cars and car allowances (reimbursement of fuel and parking expenses) on commute and leisure travel of knowledge-workers. The analyzed data consist of 750 observations, retrieved from a revealed-preferences survey among KTI workers who work and reside in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area in Israel. Results show that car-related job perks are associated with (i) high annual mileage, (ii) high propensity of using the car as main commute mode, (ii) long commute distances and travel times, (iii) high trip chaining frequency in commuting trips, and (iii) high frequency of long-distance weekend leisure trips. Result also show that KTI workers generally prefer the car or non-motorized transport modes over the bus system. These results suggest that the development of sustainable knowledge-based cities should consider (i) the replacement of car-related job perks by other incentives, (ii) the provision of pedestrian and cyclist friendly infrastructures, and (iii) public transport improvements.

The impact of 'studentification' on the rental housing market

Recent 'studentification' processes raise issues regarding the positive and negative impacts of student influx on the urban environment. The positive impacts discussed in the literature include urban core revitalization, employment generation and economic growth. The negative externalities comprise the formation of temporary sub-communities, competition with low-income groups in the rental housing market, and an increase in traffic volume. The current study adds to the literature by focusing on the influence of student influx on rent prices. The importance of this issue derives from the need to understand the net effect of the contradicting impacts of 'studentification' on contemporary urban development for policy implications. While student influx is considered a promising force of urban regeneration, in the literature concerns were raised regarding the detrimental effect of students' temporary sub-communities. The impact of 'studentification' on rent prices is evaluated by hedonic property price analysis incorporating spatial correlations. Data were collected from on-line real-estate portals advertising apartments for rent in the city of Haifa, Israel. The data include apartments characterized by more than a dozen relevant attributes to rental apartment choice including rent price, location, structural features, furniture and electrical appliances. Locations with high proportions of students in the private rented sector were identified on the basis of municipal tax files, as students in Haifa are eligible for substantial municipal tax discounts. The results of this study show the rent price differential between apartments of comparable characteristics located in 'studentified' and 'non-studentified' zones. The paper concludes with a discussion regarding the policy implications of the findings

Residential choice of knowledge-workers in a 'startup metropolis': the role of amenities, workplace and lifestyle

Knowledge-workers belonging to the super-creative core of the creative-class are considered a mean to induce economic growth and to sharpen the regional competitive edge. Driven by the key-role of housing in attracting and retaining knowledge-workers, most studies focus on the residential choice of knowledge workers at the inter-metropolitan level. In contrast, empirical evidence and analysis at the intra-metropolitan level are scarce. This study focuses on investigating the tradeoff among location amenities, workplace and lifestyle in the residential choice of knowledge-workers at the intra-metropolitan level. The importance of this issue derives from the key-role of housing as enabler for attracting and retaining knowledge-workers, and from evidence regarding the contradicting role of knowledge-workers both as catalysts to urban revitalization and as contributors to urban sprawl. Consequently, understanding the determinants of knowledge-workers' residential choice is essential for suggesting policy measures to attract and to retain knowledge workers, while promoting sustainable urban development. Multinomial logit and nested logit models are estimated for the location choice within the metropolitan area. Residential alternatives include several community types in the metropolitan core and surrounding concentric rings. Considered amenities are municipal socio-economic ranking, municipal investment in education, housing density, population composition in terms of age and creative occupations, and land-use shares allocated to public open spaces, culture and sport, public services, healthcare, education and industry. Workplace attributes are location and self-reported commuting time to work. Lifestyle is viewed from a holistic perspective encompassing lifecycle stage, work-role and leisure consumption, subject to available budget and level of mobility. The proposed model is applied to 837 observations of actual housing choices collected by means of a custom-designed web-based survey. Survey respondents consist of knowledge-workers in high-technology and financial business services, who work and reside in Tel Aviv metropolitan region, also known as the 'the startup metropolis'. The empirical results reveal the relative importance of location amenities, workplace location and lifestyle in the residential location choice of knowledge workers. Relevant policy directions are suggested and discussed

A SEMI-COMPENSATORY RESIDENTIAL CHOICE MODEL WITH FLEXIBLE ERROR STRUCTURE

Spatial choices entailing many alternatives (e.g., residence, trip destination) are typically represented by compensatory models based on utility maximization with exogenous choice set generation, which might lead to incorrect choice sets and hence to biased demand elasticity estimates. Semi-compensatory models show promise in increasing the accuracy of choice set specification by integrating choice set formation within discrete choice models. These models represent a two-stage process consisting of an elimination-based choice set formation upon satisfying criteria thresholds followed by utility-based choice. However, they are subject to simplifying assumptions that impede their application in urban planning. This paper proposes a novel semi-compensatory model that alleviates the simplifying assumptions concerning (i) the number of alternatives, (ii) the representation of choice set formation, and (iii) the error structure. The proposed semi-compensatory model represents a sequence of choice set formation based on the conjunctive heuristic with correlated thresholds, and utility-based choice accommodating alternatively nested substitution patterns across the alternatives and random taste variation across the population. The proposed model is applied to off-campus rental apartment choice of students. The population sample for model estimation consists of 1,893 residential choices from 631 students, who participated in a stated-preference web-based survey of rental apartment choice. The survey comprised a two-stage choice experiment supplemented by a questionnaire, which elicited socio-economic characteristics, attitudes and preferences. During the experiment, respondents searched an apartment dataset by a list of thresholds for pre-defined criteria and then ranked their three most preferred apartments from the resulting choice set. The survey website seamlessly recorded the chosen apartments and their respective thresholds. Results show (i) the estimated model for a realistic universal realm of 200 alternatives, (ii) the representation of correlated threshold as a function of individual characteristics, and (iii) the feasibility and importance of introducing a flexible error structure into semi-compensatory models

A survey of joint activities and travel of household members in the Greater Copenhagen Metropolitan Region

The traditional approach for modeling transport-related choices in Denmark refers to individual decision makers. However, in daily activities and travel choices individuals function according to the commitments as family members, and thus their choices derive from the welfare needs of other family members. A family-based approach enables to capture intra-household interactions and the priorities of household members in scheduling their daily activities, thus adding to the realism and the predictive strength of transport models. Joint activities and travel occur in order to maximize efficiency and family quality time, within a daily schedule. The current study unveils the joint activity and travel patterns of household members in the Copenhagen area, as part of the ACTUM research project, funded by the Danish Strategic Research Council, for the development of a new generation of activity-based models in Denmark

The choice to report cycling crashes in Denmark: The role of attitudes, norms and perceived difficulty

This study explores the behavioral factors underlying the reporting intentions of cycling accidents. The proposed analytical framework is an adapted version of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), accounting for the linkage between attitudes and the perceived difficulties, in order to understand the barriers impeding cycling accident reporting intentions. The barriers consist of attitudes that accident reporting is useless, preference to allocate time to other activities, concerns about family distress and social image, distrust in the police, and medical consultation aversion. The framework was validated by means of a survey, which yielded 1,512 complete responses from cyclists. The estimated structural equation models revealed: (i) the perceived difficulties are related to reporting intentions, to attitudes that accident reporting is useless, and to the reference to allocate time to other activities; (ii) medical consultation aversion has a higher weight than distrust in the police in demotivating cycling accident reporting intentions; (iii) the latent factors are mainly related to the socio-economic characteristics and the characteristics of the last cycling accident; (iv) information provision regarding the societal benefits of accident reporting is important for increasing the reporting rate