We examine the effects of urban form and public transit supply on the commute mode choices and annual vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) of households living in 114 urban areas in 1990. The probability of driving to work is lower the higher are population centrality and rail miles supplied and the lower is road density. Population centrality, jobs-housing balance, city shape, and road density have a significant effect on annual household VMTs. Although individual elasticities are small absolute values (≤0.10), moving sample households from a city with the characteristics of Atlanta to a city with the characteristics of Boston reduces annual VMTs by 25%.

Distributional and Efficiency Impacts of Gasoline Taxes: An Econometrically Based Multi-market Study by Antonio M. Bento, Lawrence H. Goulder, Emeric Henry, Mark R. Jacobsen and Roger H. von Haefen. Published in volume 95, issue 2, pages 282-287 of American Economic Review, May 2005