(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-08-24)
Lee, Yongsung
Will millennials stay in cities and travel without cars? To answer this question, this dissertation examines heterogeneity in modality styles and residential preferences in a sample of millennials and members of Generation X in California in 2015. It finds that both sociodemographic/ economic characteristics and attitudes about various dimensions (e.g., preferred built environments, travel modes, and car ownership) account for the heterogeneous behavioral and choice patterns in the sample. These findings provide insights on the ways millennials may switch their modality styles or residential preferences in response to changes in sociodemographic/economic conditions or attitudes in the coming years. This dissertation highlights the use of latent-class approaches as effective for the identification of heterogeneity in tastes related to the travel behaviors and location choices of millennials. Researchers are advised to apply these approaches to longitudinal analyses. This research also informs planners and policymakers of dynamic changes in the form or share of latent classes in their region.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2017-05-19)
Zhang, Wenwen
The promising Shared Autonomous Vehicle (SAV) system will inevitably lead to changes in urban land use. Despite recent proliferating studies regarding SAVs, it remains unclear how this affordable and environmentally friendly travel mode will influence residential and commercial location choices and potentially transform urban form. This dissertation develops a discrete event based SAV simulation and implements the model using the transportation network, travel demand, and land use data from Atlanta Metropolitan area. The model is then integrated with residential and employment (re)location choice models to explore how the SAV system will affect urban parking, residential land use, as well as employment agglomeration patterns. The results suggest SAV can significantly reduce parking demand by over 90%. Additionally, the simulation results also indicate the system will not induce residential sprawl into rural areas. Finally, it appears that SAV will accelerate the existing deindustrialization process in cities. The results of this study can provide implications for devising more sustainable land use policies in the era of SAVs.