Travel Behavior Among Same-Sex Couples

In this paper, the authors explore the determinants of gays’ and lesbians’ mode choice. Same-sex partnered individuals are far more likely to use transit, walk, and cycle, and to a lesser extent, use carpools. They attempt to explain these often dramatic differences by controlling for factors known to influence mode choice. They hypothesize that characteristics of the neighborhoods in which many gays and lesbians live (such as high residential density, centrality, and urban form) can explain at least some of their increased propensity to use “alternative” modes of travel. Living in a gay or lesbian neighborhood should further increase the use of these alternative modes of transportation for gays and lesbians, because they enable dense activity patterns focused around the neighborhood. The authors perform two separate analyses employing two distinct datasets. The first analysis examines journey-to-work data from the American Community Survey. The second analysis focuses in specifically on non-motorized (walking, biking) travel using use self-reported walk and bike frequency from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey. In both, they find that characteristics of the neighborhoods in which gays and lesbians live, as well characteristics of the individuals themselves, only explain part of the increased propensity to use “alternative” modes of transportation; a strong residual effect remains. The authors mixed evidence for the effect of living in a neighborhood with a large share of same-sex partnered households.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB10 Traveler Behavior and Values.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Klein, Nicholas J
  • Smart, Michael J
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 20p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Activity choices; Bicycling; Carpools; Households; Mode choice; Neighborhoods; Public transit; Social factors; Travel behavior; Walking; Work trips
• Identifier Terms: American Community Survey; National Household Travel Survey
• Uncontrolled Terms: Gays
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01515894
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-2984
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 25 2014 9:15AM