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Title:

Are Millenials More Multimodal? A Latent-Class Analysis with Attitudes and Preferences

Accession Number:

01658354

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

The millennial generation, which includes individuals born from the early 1980s to 2000, tend to use a variety of travel modes more often than older birth cohorts. Two potential explanations for this phenomenon prevail in the literature. Millennials may choose multimodal travel behavior because of the recent economic crisis, which has been more severe than the earlier ones faced by their older counterparts. Alternatively, young adults may have fundamentally different preferences from those of older birth cohorts. In this paper, the authors analyze multimodal travel patterns of a sample (N=1,070) of California commuters extracted from a larger dataset composed of millennials and members of the preceding Generation X. A latent profile analysis with covariates identifies five distinctive traveler groups: Habitual drivers (84.7%), Active travelers (8.8%), Multimodal drivers (2.9%), Transit riders (2.3%), and Multimodals for leisure (1.3%). The authors observe gradual changes and fluctuations in the shares of the five groups across age cohorts. Millennials adopt multimodality more often than Gen Xers on average. As expected, various economic factors, life course events, attitudes and preferences, and land use attributes account for these commuters belonging to the five traveler groups. This paper rigorously classifies various forms of travel multimodality with a rich dataset, explores gradual changes of multimodality across age and generation, and analyzes the effects of various factors on multimodality. As young adults transition to their next life stages and relocate to new places, planners and policymakers need to support their multimodal travel behavior with various residential options.

Supplemental Notes:

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

Report/Paper Numbers:

18-03162

Language:

English

Authors:

Lee, Yongsung

ORCID 0000-0002-1980-1225

Circella, Giovanni
Mokhtarian, Patricia L
Guhathakurta, Subhrajit

Pagination:

20p

Publication Date:

2018

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References; Tables

Uncontrolled Terms:

Geographic Terms:

Subject Areas:

Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-03162

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Jan 8 2018 10:46AM