The role of residential consonance and dissonance between couples in travel behavior

Abstract

The present study investigates the extent to which residential consonance/dissonance between couples affected travel behavior at the household level. Using data from the Netherlands, we employed principal component analysis and clustering to construct a residential consonant/dissonant couples typology. We applied gender-specific ordered logistic models to determine the effects of residential consonance/dissonance on travel mode usage. The seemingly unrelated estimation test was used to compare the regression results for male and female household members. The results showed that car use was low among non-urban dissonant men, whereas cycling and train use was high. Non-urban dissonant couples preferred walking. Dissonant men in non-urban areas were less influenced by the residential environment and were inclined to adapt their travel behavior to their partners' travel preferences. Our findings suggest that providing more attractive residential locations and sustainable transport services may enable couples to mitigate residential dissonance.