01472766

Component

A great deal is known about the travel behavior of adults, and more recently about travel by children and the elderly, but what about teens and young adults? This question is particularly pressing because youth in the late 2000s and early 2010s (a) face the harshest economic climate in decades, which has caused much higher unemployment rates than among middle-aged adults and forced many young adults to return (“boomerang”) home, (b) use information and communication technologies (ICTs) extensively, and considerably more than their elders, and (c) are subject to increasingly stringent graduated driver’s licensing (GDL) regulations. All are dramatic societal changes to be sure, but are they affecting youth travel behavior? And it so, how? To answer these questions the authors examine (1) how the travel behavior of youth compares to that of older adults, (2) whether the basic determinants of youth travel have changed over time, and (3) whether the societal changes described above affect youth travel behavior. To do this the authors analyzed nationwide personal mobility trends (measured as person-miles of travel (PMT)) between 1990 and 2009 and find that many key determinants of travel are similar for teens, young adults, and adults: being employed, licensed, having access to cars, and residential area population density all significantly affect PMT regardless of age. By contrast, some socio-economic factors long found to influence adult travel – such as race/ethnicity and household income – are not significant for today’s teens. Finally, with the exception of employment, the effects of societal trends (ICTs, GDLs, and young adults “boomeranging” to live at home with parents) on youth travel are surprisingly muted. When it comes to recent changes in teen, youth, (and adult) travel behavior, the adage “it’s the economy, stupid” appears to hold.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADD20 Social and Economic Factors of Transportation.

01470560

13-3214

English

20p

2013

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

References; Tables

Adolescents; Adults; Economic and social factors; Graduated licensing; Mobility; Person miles of travel; Residential location; Telecommunications; Travel behavior; Unemployment

Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-3214

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 5 2013 12:39PM