Running to stay in place: the time-use implications of automobile oriented land-use and travel

A fundamental role of an urban transportation system is to provide a means for individuals in society to access locations and participate in activities. This paper investigates how automobility, a system of land-use and mobility, imposes on the ability to participate in discretionary activities. A theoretical argument couched in time-geography is used to describe the mechanism through which activity dispersion and traffic congestion, both features of the current realization of automobility, hampers accessibility. The concept is illustrated with an analysis of synthetic space–time prisms constructed under a variety of travel speed and activity dispersion assumptions. Following this, a descriptive analysis of time-use data drawn from several cycles of the General Social Survey of Canada is used to empirically test the argument. The empirical investigation provides evidence of declining participation in a variety of discretionary, out-of-home activities, and an increase in the amount of travel required to reach activity destinations. The work trip in particular is shown to have increased significantly between 1992 and 2005 and activity profiles for drivers and non-drivers show that participation in discretionary activities is severely affected by the duration of the daily work commute. Participation however is more severely impacted by commute duration amongst non-drivers, indicating the relative benefit of being a non-driver in a compact urban form, versus potentially being excluded from participation as a non-driver in an urban spatial structure supportive of and constructed for the automobile.

Research highlights
► Participation in discretionary activities is negatively affected by the duration of the daily work commute.
► Between 1992 and 2005, participation in out-of-home discretionary activities has declined, while travel required for these types of activities has increased.
► Those who are able to live close to their workplace are able to maintain high levels of discretionary out-of-home activity participation even if they don’t use an automobile.