LIVING CLOSE TO HIGHWAYS: RESIDENTIAL SATISFACTION AND THE INFLUENCE OF (PERCEIVED CHANGES IN) ACCESSIBILITY AND NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES

Residential satisfaction is an important proxy for people´s wellbeing and for relocation behavior. In this paper we focus on gaining insight into the residential satisfaction of households near highways, based on survey data collected among 1,230 respondents in the Netherlands. Using ordinal regression analysis, we studied the effect of accessibility and negative externalities, alongside other contextual factors, on residential satisfaction. Moreover, the objective was to gain first insights into the extent to which plans for road infrastructure adjustments influence residential satisfaction. On average, 90 percent of respondents reported to be satisfied with living near the highway. Regarding explanatory characteristics, negative externalities slightly outweigh accessibility aspects. Moreover, subjective evaluations of hindrance appear to have stronger explanatory power than calculated air and noise exposure. Regarding road adjustments, we found that respondents living near locations where a road adjustment has been announced are marginally more satisfied compared to other locations. A reason could be that respondents expect the current situation to improve once the adjustments are finished, for instance by increased accessibility. The overall positive residential satisfaction evaluations near highways may imply that, generally speaking, problems regarding living near highways may be somewhat overstated. Moreover, the notion that the explanatory power of subjective hindrance outperforms calculated exposure levels may give reason to be cautious when making transportation planning decisions based solely on calculations.