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MODELING RESIDENTIAL SORTING EFFECTS TO UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT ON COMMUTE MODE CHOICE Abdul Rawoof Pinjari Department of Civil, Architectural Environmental Engineering The University of Texas at Austin 1 University Station, C1761 Austin, Texas 78712 Phone: (512) 964-3228; Fax: (512) 475-8744 Email: abdul.pinjari@ Ram M. Pendyala, Ph.D. Department of Civil Environmental Engineering Arizona State University PO Box 875306, ECG252 Tempe, AZ 85287-5306 Phone: (480) 727-9164; Fax: (480) 965-0557 Email: ram.pendyala@ Chandra R. Bhat, Ph.D. Department of Civil, Architectural Environmental Engineering The University of Texas at Austin 1 University Station, C1761 Austin, Texas 78712 Phone: (512) 471-4535; Fax: (512) 475-8744 Email: bhat@ Paul A. Waddell, Ph.D. Center for Urban Simulation and Policy Analysis Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs University of Washington Box 353055 Seattle, Washington 98195-3055 Phone: (206) 221-4161; Fax: (206) 685-9044 Email: pwaddell@  ABSTRACT This paper presents an examination of the significance of residential sorting or self selection effects in understanding the impacts of the built environment on travel choices. Land use and transportation system attributes are often treated as exogenous variables in models of travel behavior. Such models ignore the potential self selection processes that may be at play wherein households and individuals choose to locate in areas or built environments that are consistent with their lifestyle and transportation preferences, attitudes, and values. In this paper, a simultaneous model of residential location choice and commute mode choice that accounts for both observed and unobserved taste variations that may contribute to residential self selection is estimated on a survey sample extracted from the 2000 San Francisco Bay Area household travel survey. Model results show that both observed and unobserved residential self selection effects do exis