Full Citation
Title: "Would It Be Weird to Live Here Without a Car?": Using Reddit to Understand Car-Free Lifestyle Decisions
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2021
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Abstract: Car use is associated with negative social, economic, and environmental externalities. Encouraging people to adopt a car-free lifestyle is one way to address these harms, since car ownership is a major predictor of driving. Nevertheless, few people in the US voluntarily live without a car. In this dissertation, I seek 1) to understand why people decide to live car-free, and 2) to investigate the potential that more people could adopt car-free lifestyles. I use threads scraped from Reddit, an online social media platform, to address these issues, employing content analysis to examine data from seven US cities in which Reddit commenters discuss car ownership decisions. I find that the car-free are multimodal, employ contingency plans, rely on ridehailing and carsharing services to fill mobility gaps, and readily get used to car-free living. Among car owners, I find that while some need cars, others keep them for convenience. Costs are a primary motivator in ownership decisions, especially parking costs. Awareness of these costs motivates shedding of cars, while lowered costs, e.g., via free parking, encourage ownership. Accessible neighborhoods facilitate car-free life, with commenters describing walking and using transit to access common destinations. Changes in car ownership are catalyzed in two ways: 1) Key life events (e.g., moving) cause changes in travel needs or available choices, or 2) People reevaluate their available options and make new choices, unspurred by a key event. I conclude that there are groups, like those who keep cars for convenience, or those whose needs could be met by alternative modes, that display high potential to become car-free. Changes in cost structure and policy may be leveraged to bring these changes about.
Url: https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/66787/PDF/1/play/
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Iacobucci, Evan
Institution: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Department: Planning and Public Policy
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Publisher Location: New Brunswick, New Jersey
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Land Use/Urban Organization, Methodology and Data Collection, Population Data Science
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