Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Transport & Health journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jth Modelling the impact of fused grid network design on mode choice behaviour Abdul Rahman Masoud a , Ahmed Osman Idris b,* , Gordon Lovegrove a a School of Engineering, University of British Columbia, 1137 Alumni Avenue, Kelowna, BC, V1V 1V7, Canada b Construction and Building Engineering Department, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, P.O. Box 1029, Abu Kir, Alexandria, Egypt ARTICLE INFO An early version of this paper was presented at the 96th TRB Annual Meeting, January 8th - 12th, 2017 Washington, D.C. (The paper was not submitted for publication in the TRR). Keywords: Active transportation Fused grid Mode choice Mode shift Neighbourhood design Sustainable community ABSTRACT Introduction: The fused grid (FG) is a an alternative model developed by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to combine the easy orientation and connectivity of the traditional grid pattern with the land use efficiency and quietness of the contemporary cul-de-sac pattern. One of the main distinguishing principles of the FG design relative to contemporary neighbourhood patterns are the FG's higher non-motorized network connectivity versus vehicle network con- nectivity. This paper reports on research related to the influence of FG design principles on non- motorized use for home-to-work commuting and home-to-shopping trips. Methods: This study uses a macroscopic-level approach to investigate the impact of FG on mode choice behaviour through hypothetically retrofitting an existing neighbourhood in Kelowna, BC, using the FG design principles. First, the change in travel distance and time due to retrofitting the neighbourhood was estimated using ArcGIS. Then, the modal shift in home-to-work and home-to- shopping trips due to the change in travel distance and time was estimated using multinomial logit mode choice models that were developed using the 2013 Okanagan household travel survey. Results: The results suggest that the influence of travel time on choosing the auto mode is much stronger and more significant for home-to-work trips compared to home-to-shopping trips. The results also show that retrofitting the road network resulted in reducing auto modal share by 13 percent and increasing non-motorized modes by 64 percent for home-to-work trips. However, an insignificant shift in modal share towards non-motorized modes for home-to-shopping trips was found. Conclusions: In conclusion, this study demonstrated the effectiveness of the FG principles in re- ducing auto use and increasing non-motorized modes use for home-to-work trips. In addition, the study revealed that infrastructure investments related to providing more accessibility for non- motorized users might have more impact on decreasing auto use compared to restricting vehi- cular network connectivity. 1. Introduction Community urban planning was originally motivated by the pursuit of public health, back in the early 20th century, when cities were suffering from infectious diseases and poor sanitation (Perdue et al., 2003). During that time, it was well established that https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2019.100627 Received 6 May 2019; Received in revised form 18 August 2019; Accepted 29 August 2019 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: amasoud@mail.ubc.ca (A.R. Masoud), ahmed.idris@aast.edu (A.O. Idris), gord.lovegrove@ubc.ca (G. Lovegrove). Journal of Transport & Health 15 (2019) 100627 Available online 06 September 2019 2214-1405/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T