I think that both this and what the paper says can hold true.

The paper is saying that from the point of view of the location, the distribution of effective distances traveled is invariant. So if you really like the 45min part of your city, then every one closer really loves it, so visit it much more than you do. Therefore the law holds true, even though on an individual basis you obviously go to the closer parts more frequently.

The fact that you might be prepared to go all the way to e.g. Disneyworld means that the people who live closer are massively more likely to go there to the point where people who live 5 miles from it go there all the time.