Co-evolution of the built environment and travel behaviour in Shenzhen, China

The impact of the built environment on travel behaviour may change over time especially over the course of urban expansion. There is a long-time debate on the existence of a constant time budget that people are willing to spend on daily travel. This study collects data from Shenzhen's periodical travel surveys spanning two decades and examines the trends in travel distance and travel time as well as the changing impacts of the built environment on travel behaviour. We find that travel distance increases significantly over the study period, but travel time grows at a much lower pace and reaches stable level at the late stage. The travel behaviour impacts of the built environment also change over time in terms of directions and magnitudes. Findings of this study enrich the literature on the built environment-travel behaviour connection with a dynamic perspective and provide evidence supporting the constant travel time budget hypothesis.