Lifestyles, spatial configurations and quality of life in daily travel: an explorative simulation study Jan Ritsema van Eck a,b , Guillaume Burghouwt a , Martin Dijst a, * a Urban and Regional Research Centre Utrecht (URU), P.O. Box 80115, 3504 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands b Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research (RPB), P.O. Box 30314, 2500 GH The Hague, The Netherlands Abstract The aim of this study is to compare a number of local spatial configurations of land use and transport facilities in a Dutch new town to address the question what impact these configurations have on the quality of life of different population categories. The results suggest that concentrating services near public transport nodes and increasing urban density, do have the potential to in- crease travel time and travel distance efficiency. High density offers the best opportunities to realize daily activities. More generally, this study highlights the necessity of a life-style oriented approach in planning the spatial configurations of residential areas. Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Choice opportunities; Spatial configurations; Lifestyles; Quality of life 1. Introduction As a result of cultural, demographic, economic, and technological developments current society can be characterized by increasing opportunities for choice in different behavioural domains such as housing, the labour market, leisure and transport markets. Conse- quently, we observe a significant increase in the variety of household types and lifestyles that is accompanied by a differentiation in activity and travel patterns (Musterd and van Zelm, 2001; Bertolini and Dijst, 2003). How- ever, these enlarged choice sets do not mean that indi- viduals have complete freedom of choice. Highly individualized agendas increase coupling constraints and time pressures in the daily lives of many individuals. In view of this changing social–cultural context, it is remarkable that policymakers and academics are pre- dominantly interested in the environmental impacts of spatial and transport policies. For example, a sub- stantial body of literature is concentrated on disentan- gling the relationships between the characteristics of spatial configurations (density and mixed land use, for example) and travel distance and mode choice, espe- cially car use. For individuals, daily life travel time is an important criterion in decision-making (Pas, 1998). However, in the literature the association between urban form and travel time is underexposed (Schwanen et al., 2002). In our opinion, if a sustainable development is to be attained, environmental goals have to be supple- mented with social goals. An evaluation of spatial configurations should, therefore, be based on both envi- ronmental criteria (such as travel distance) and social criteria (such as the feasibility of activities, travel pat- terns, and travel time). In this paper we concentrate on the travel behaviour of some relevant population categories, such as single- earners, two- and one-earner households with or without children, and retired people. We address the choice opportunities these population categories have in differ- ent types of spatial configurations. We are particularly interested in the impact of spatial configurations on the efficiency of mobility behaviour from both a spatio- temporal and an environmental perspective. The simu- lation model MASTIC was used to analyse the impact of variousdensityandlandusemixconfigurationsofshops, children’s playgrounds, leisure facilities, dwellings, and parking places on the quality of life in daily travel. Three quality-of-life indicators were used: the feasibility of carrying out desired activities; travel time efficiency; travel distance efficiency. We have used data from a pilot study of residents of the Dutch new town of Zoetermeer. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +31-30-2534442; fax: +31-30- 2532037. E-mail address: m.dijst@geog.uu.nl (M. Dijst). 0966-6923/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2004.04.013 Journal of Transport Geography 13 (2005) 123–134 www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo