Built environment and self-selection of residential location in the context of US-American cities

Abstract

Urban environments currently experience radical transformation processes – from the ones related to growing population to sustainable city transitions. Therefore, they are in the center of public attention in enabling more just and sustainable community spaces. Although research has been conducted for several decades, it remains unclear what constitutes systemic change. However, factors found to be some of those constitutional factors are self-selection of the living location and the surrounding built environment. Hence, this paper aims to explore the relationship between travel behavior, the built environment and self-selection. Considering available literature reviews and meta-analyses, the examination focuses on the living context in the US. It was found that all the influencing parameters are highly intertwined, thus making disaggregation difficult and showing the importance of multidimensional assessments of urban environments. Nonetheless, gaps remain regarding the elimination of research biases, and furthermore, considering the characteristics of various methodologies.