01697395

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Literature suggests that travel behaviors among young adults in the West are changing to rely less on automobile than previous generations. However, little attention has been paid to travel behavior of young adult travelers in developing countries. This study investigates travel behavior among Iranian university students, who generate a considerable proportion of daily trips in Iran’s largest cities. The authors examined the current and preferred mode choices using a comprehensive survey to collect data from university students aged 18 to 30 years old at twelve universities in metropolitan Shiraz. The predictive factors included perceptions toward public transit and walkability, travel attitudes, lifestyle, and built environment characteristics. Employing structural equation models, this study found that even though public transit was the most common mode of transportation at the time of the study, the majority of respondents reported their preference for private cars compared to public transit. These findings are in contrast to the results of previous studies on Millennials’ travel behaviors in developed countries stating their desire to drive less. This could be due to the fact that in religion-based countries such as Iran, public spaces including the public transit platforms (e.g., buses) highly limit opportunities for students’ inter-gender interactions, which, in turn, leads to greater preferences for driving, as mode offering more privacy and freedom, among Iranian Millennials. The authors also found the attitudinal and lifestyle factors to be significant determinates of both current and preferred modal choices. The built environment characteristics of distance to university, land-use diversity, and street density influenced modal choices.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE90 Standing Committee on Transportation in the Developing Countries.

19-00701

English

17p

2019

Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Attitudes; Automobiles; Built environment; College students; Developing countries; Mode choice; Public transit; Stated preferences; Surveys; Travel behavior; Young adults

Shiraz (Iran)

Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2019 Paper #19-00701

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 7 2018 9:26AM