Relationships between residential relocation, travel behaviour and household affordability: the case of the Roodepoort regional node in Johannesburg

Abstract

Households must often trade-off amenity, accessibility, and affordability in their residential and travel decisions. Little research attention has been given to how these trade-offs are made amongst lower income households in South Africa, the nature of relationships between neighbourhood relocation, housing affordability, and travel aspirations. The aim of this paper is to investigate relationships between travel patterns, household expenditure, and residential relocation, in the Roodepoort Regional Node, a social housing development scheme in Johannesburg with walkable mixed land-uses and close proximity to public transport services. The research method involved qualitative retrospective mobility biography interviews of 31 residents. The findings indicate that the relocation to Roodepoort was motivated by varying combinations of: housing affordability; change in family structure; proximity to facilities; activity spaces; employment opportunities; and access to transport. The relocation yielded a change in travel behaviour for the majority of the study participants. It was found that relocation can result in benefits such as proximity to transport and saving money and travel time. The findings demonstrated, however, that being located in a public transport-friendly node does not necessarily result in the participants using public transport.