01588095

Component

Americans are driving less. The changes are most pronounced among Millennials, those born in the 1980s and 1990s. Much ink has been spilled debating whether these changes in travel behavior are due to changing preferences or economic circumstances. In this paper, the authors use eight waves of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to examine recent changes in auto ownership among US families with a particular focus on Millennials. They find that today’s young adults do own fewer cars than previous generations did when they were young. However, when they control for whether young adults have become economically independent from their parents, i.e. left the nest, the authors find that economically independent young adults own slightly more cars than they would expect, given their low incomes and wealth. They caution planners to temper their enthusiasm about “peak car,” as this may largely be a manifestation of economic factors that could reverse in coming years.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB10 Standing Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values.

01584066

16-5879

English

18p

2016

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Automobile ownership; Socioeconomic factors; Travel behavior; Young adults

Millennials

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

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2016 Paper #16-5879

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 12 2016 6:36PM