Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
First Advisor
Jacob Martin
Abstract
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation poses a significant challenge in rural communities. Rural populations rely more heavily on personal vehicle travel than nonrural populations and are more likely to experience mobility challenges. Efforts to address greenhouse gas emissions from transportation have increasingly focused on strategies such as smart growth and compact development, which are designed to reduce travelers’ reliance on automobiles. However, nearly all research to date on travel and the built environment has been focused on urban and suburban areas, leaving rural decision-makers with little guidance for how to effectively reduce GHGs in their communities. Further complicating this question is the heterogeneity of rural communities. In the first part of this thesis, I evaluate the personal and built environment factors that relate to vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and mode choice in urban and rural communities. I conduct this analysis using travel behavior data from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Household Travel Survey combined with detailed built environment data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Smart Location Database. I then use this same data supplemented by additional data sources to explore intra-rural travel differences and how varying definitions of rural alter our understanding of rural travel. Our findings point to important differences in the relationship between travel and the built environment across urban and rural contexts as well as within different types of rural contexts. This research advances our understanding of the factors that are associated with rural vehicle use and highlights the unique challenges and opportunities that rural planners face as they seek to reduce vehicle travel in rural and small communities in the US. The findings of this research build knowledge that will allow rural decision-makers to better understand the relationship between the built environment and travel in their communities.
Language
en
Number of Pages
84 p.
Recommended Citation
Schukei, Harrison, "Rethinking rural: How simplification clouds our understanding of rural travel behavior" (2024). Graduate College Dissertations and Theses. 1958.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/1958