Metropolitan Phoenix is an international example of a low-density, automobile-dependent city where car travel is required to conduct daily activities. Population growth, political pressure for new highway construction, and efforts to manage travel demand for air quality improvement purposes coexist. The focus of this paper is on how people and institutions have created this distinctive urban travel landscape and on some of its key consequences for travel behaviour. Three themes in human geography lend structure to this discussion: direct experience of the landscape, generalisation of this experience, and evaluation of efforts to modify behaviour in this landscape. The present travel landscape emerged over the past forty years. Examining personal experience of the daily commute provides confirmation of the direct implications of this landscape for urban travellers. Mobility processes then provide a wider context for this landscape through examination of the cycle of travel demand and the role of gender in shaping commuting choices. These perspectives illustrate how the local travelling community - men, women, and children - responds to efforts to manage urban travel. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting