Full Citation
Title: Car-free by choice or Carless by economic constraint?
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2018
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI:
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: To understand the connections between the built environment and travel, we should examine how different travel behaviors change over time. Whether a household owns a car or not is one indicator that can show long-term changes in travel behavior. Historically, the percent of households without a car in the US has been declining as cars have become more affordable, and as cars have been the transportation option that provides the greatest freedom and accessibility to jobs and destinations. Until recently, increases in the proportion of households with no vehicles available corresponded to economic changes such as a recession as people could not afford to own cars. However, the percent of carless households has been declining at a slower rate across all urbanized areas and if we look at the trends in the top 20 urbanized areas in the United States we see the proportion of households without cars has remained relatively stable 3 at this aggregate level over time, but when we look at the individual cities we see some cases where there has been an increase in the proportion of households without cars by 2015. When we look at the spatial distribution of carless households we see they are concentrated in the central city as the mobility of this group requires reasonable access to other modes like walking, bicycling, transit or ride sharing. The built environment and services in the central city allow for greater mobility. By examining the characteristics of these households in the central cities of the top 20 urbanized study area we see a shift of the type of households that do not own cars. Carless households are not homogenous, and they are changing over time. We see trends of people with higher education and income and younger generations not owning cars at higher percentages than ever before. Examining these trends at different scales: national, in major cities, in central cities, in specific, individual cities and at the scale of the individual can help us distinguish the trends in the types of households in different places who are forgoing car ownership and help us to tease out the groups which forgo ownership by choice as opposed to economic constraint. This descriptive analysis can guide further exploration of these trends especially in further analyzing what factors are “pulling” households choosing to not own cars to certain cities and built environments. The future of this research includes utilizing these findings to further explore the relationship of the many possible factors that are affecting the location choices of carless households including the built environment characteristics of diversity, design, density, distance to transit, and 4 destinations. Establishing a comprehensive picture of the characteristics of these groups over time is the first step. Next, understanding the impact of the built environment factors on their location choice can help guide planning practice for designing cities that support a car-free lifestyle. As people living in cities in the US forgo buying a car, choosing instead to utilize other modes for trips, planners should ensure equitable access for these households to reach amenities, jobs, and services without a car. Further research into both long-term indicators of travel behavior like car ownership and shorter-term factors like mode choice for work and nonwork trips should be studied to understand the needs and choices of car-free households living in different built environments. Finally, we can mitigate future consequences of further CO2 emissions by designing cities that prioritize walking, bicycling, and transit, over automobiles, as these alternative modes are crucial in improving the built environment, health, relieving congestion, reducing parking needs, and more.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Wolfe, Amanda
Publisher: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure
Countries: United States