A description of the work: Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) has been widely studied and introduced as one of the methods to reduce the use of cars in the developed world and some well-development regions in China. However, Changsha, though having one of the fastest metro developments in China’s “non-first-tier cities” with the vast TOD or other similar urban development taken palace, has not been paid much attention in this field. Therefore, in order to fill the gap, this research aims to study the the relationship between people’s travel behaviour and TOD in Changsha. An online survey has been distributed to 239 responses and a binary logistic regression model has been used to identify the factors that lead people to take metro. There are three key findings in this dissertation: 1) High metro stations accessibility is the most significant in attracting people using metro while reducing car ownership and restricting urban car parking also play certain roles, but socio-demographic factors, like gender, age and income, are not significant at this aspect; 2) Increasing land-use diversity and optimising walking and cycling-friendly design can help to boost neighbourhood travel and reducing car usage while increasing density should not help much in this perspective; 3) Only few people have TOD-style daily travel mode and most of them have to put housing prices and layouts first in choosing their current residences, but they are still interested in living in a neighbourhood with TOD attributes. To better achieve TOD in Changsha, urban planners and policymakers should further improve the experience of non-car urban travel, optimise neighbourhood design and planning, and increase the investment in affordable housing to achieve greater freedom of housing choice.

During the COVID-19 crisis, a series of measures restricting travel and outdoor activities are taken to mitigate the pandemic and minimise its negative effects. These unprecedented methods have greatly changed the number and purposes of trips and mode choices in travel. However, these changes in travel behaviour during and post the outbreak still remains unclear. In addition, different groups may be affected to varying degrees in terms of social equity, which is not fully discussed in the existing literature. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation is to investigate the differences in individuals’ travel behaviour before and after the pandemic using Huzhou as an example. Semi-structured interviews through telephone are used to explore the influence of COVID-19 on travel and perceptions of different groups. The results indicate that first travel demand was greatly reduced and public transport became the least popular travel mode during the pandemic due to policy constraints and the fear of infection. Secondly, decreased travel caused a lack of activity participation, which might affect health as well as subjective wellbeing negatively. Thirdly, the degree and the duration of such impacts vary from person to person. Students, people with lower incomes, groups living in communities with small size and insufficient green spaces, and those working in tourism, catering, informal business and transport-related sectors were more vulnerable than others in society. The key argument is that changes in travel behaviour due to COVID-19 caused inequity in these groups, while such unfairness has been overlooked by the local government. Thus, policymakers need to pay more attention to social inequities due to transport and individuals’ heterogeneity. Besides, public transport systems in Huzhou should be further developed to promote social cohesion in the way of expanding networks, increasing running frequency, building and updating infrastructures, introducing new modes such as light rails.

A growing proportion of young adults live with their parents in London, driven in part by high housing costs and weak wage growth. Meanwhile, reductions in driver’s license holding and car use among millennials have gained significant attention in transport research. A number of distinct lifestyle changes have been suggested to have contributed to these emerging trends. Millennials’ delayed transition to adulthood is often acknowledged, but few studies have explored how living with parent’s past adolescence affects travel behaviour. This study uses survey data from Transport for London (TfL) to compare the travel behaviours of millennials who live with parents with those who live independently. The results show that those living with parents travel less frequently, and by less active and sustainable modes, with implications for health, social exclusion, and sustainability. Path analysis, a form of structural equation modelling, is used to uncover the mediating impacts of car access, socio-demographic and spatial characteristics. Millennials in multi-generational households largely live in outer London and in areas of lower public transport accessibility. Contrary to findings of previous studies, millennials who live with their parents are more likely to have access to a car than their counterparts who live independently, although they are less likely to have learnt to drive. These results reveal wide variation in the travel behaviours of millennial Londoners, resulting from the interaction of cohort-specific and traditional determinants of travel demand. This challenges the implicitly assumed homogeneity of millennial travel behaviours in much of the literature. Further, this research demonstrates the need for transport planners to account for broader macro-economic uncertainty in their forecasts of travel demand. To ensure the continued growth of active and sustainable travel among young adults, policy interventions must span economic, housing and transport disciplines.