Urban Travel and Residential Choices Across Generations: Results from a North American Survey

Popular media suggests that younger generations prefer to live in urban areas and would rather use Ubers in lieu of owning their own vehicles. However, there is growing evidence that Millennials’ preferences are not dramatically different from previous generations when it comes to housing and transportation choices. This paper presents findings from a comprehensive travel and residential survey deployed in seven major U.S. cities. The survey includes new data on topics often absent in traditional travel surveys, including residential neighborhood and housing preferences, life events, and the adoption of new shared mobility services. The authors find that although license rates and vehicle ownership are lower among Millennials, their desire to own vehicles is similar to previous generations and their reasons for not owning vehicles are primarily financial. The authors find that the net migration of younger generations points towards the suburbs. Related questioning about younger generations’ intent to have children and associated housing preferences suggest that urban Millennials and Gen Xers will trade transit-oriented living and walkable neighborhoods for more spacious housing and quality public education. While population growth in urbanized (i.e. urban and suburban) areas is increasing, this research suggests most of the growth will be in the suburbs. As the transportation landscape evolves with the rapid adoption of shared mobility services and soon, automated vehicles, the authors suggest that planners and policymakers consider how to shape the backdrop against which individual households make their travel choices to foster a more sustainable future.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADD30 Standing Committee on Transportation and Land Development.
• Authors:
  • Clewlow, Regina R
  • Mishra, Gouri Shankar
  • Jenn, Alan
  • Laberteaux, Ken
• 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: Automobile ownership; Population movements; Residential location; Revealed preferences; Suburbs; Travel surveys; Urban population; Urban travel
• Uncontrolled Terms: Millennials
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01660407
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-03625
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 20 2018 9:28AM