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

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.
• Authors:
  • Lee, Yongsung
  • 0000-0002-1980-1225
  • Circella, Giovanni
  • Mokhtarian, Patricia L
  • Guhathakurta, Subhrajit
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 20p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Commuters; Mode choice; Multimodal transportation; Travel patterns
• Uncontrolled Terms: Millennials
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01658354
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-03162
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 29 2018 10:25AM