The costs of sprawl for private-vehicle commuters

Empirical evidence exists to suggest that sprawl contributes to higher household expenditures on transportation. However, little is known about how sprawl affects the cost of the most recurrent daily trip—the trip to work. To explore the sprawl–work trip relationship, the study adopts a multilevel approach to private-vehicle commuting costs. The multilevel model attempts to determine which measure(s) of sprawl contribute(s) most to higher private-vehicle commuting costs at the household-level after controlling for congestion and average household expenditures on housing and transportation at the Metropolitan Statistical Area- (MSA-) level of analysis. Results show that one measure of sprawl—street accessibility—has a statistically significant though minimal effect on private-vehicle commuting costs and that such costs are higher in MSAs with more congestion and higher average household expenditures on public transportation. Overall, a multilevel approach suggests that congestion contributes more to higher private-vehicle commuting costs than sprawl.