Does improving public transport decrease car ownership? Evidence from a residential sorting model for the Copenhagen metropolitan area

Car ownership is lower in urban areas, where public transport is of high quality. This suggests that better public transport offers the possibility to relieve the many problems (congestion, pollution, and parking) associated with the presence of cars in urban areas. To investigate this issue, we develop a model for the simultaneous choice of residential location and car ownership by households, and estimate it on Danish data, paying special attention to accessibility of the metro network. We use the estimated model to simulate the impact of an extension of the metro network. We show that for the Greater Copenhagen Area an extension of the metro network decreases car ownership by 2–3%, while the average compensating variation is approximately 3% of household income.