In the context of global warming and rapid urbanization, sustainable traffic problems are receiving more attention. We took the city of Kaifeng as a case study as it is a typical small to medium- sized city in China. Using large sample survey data, high- resolution remote sensing images, spatial autocorrelation analysis, standard deviation ellipse analysis and geographical weighted regression we studied the spatial characteristics and influencing factors of daily travel carbon emissions. We found that high- value agglomeration areas of household travel carbon emissions were observed in new urban development zones. Built-up areas are expanding faster in the outer layers of the city, and to some extent validated the driving effect of urban sprawl on the increasing carbon emissions of residents. Spatial differences in household travel carbon emissions reflected living separation phenomenon and was serious in the new commercial housing community in rapid urban expansion areas. Public service supply did not match urban development and slow development areas lack convenient service facilities such as one- stop shopping places. Imbalance in family travel carbon emissions is significant, but income is not a determining factor and travel to places of education has even more influence than the distance to employment. The lagging and uneven development of education resources is needed to improve the family's constant attention to education. The coefficient of the male host job- live distance has a higher space fragmentation degree. The effect strength of other factors is obvious in the spatial distribution pattern of zonal gradients, consistent with the main direction of urban development.