Seminar: Emerging transportation trends in California: shared mobility, millennials and new forms of technology
Dr. Giovanni Circella is from the Urban Land Use and Transportation Center (ULTRANS), Georgia Tech & Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), UC Davis.
Passenger travel is going through a time of great transformation in the United States as well as in other countries. Young adults (“millennials”), in particular, are reported to behave (and travel) differently from previous generations at the same stage in life: they postpone the time they obtain a driver’s license, often choose to live in urban locations and not to own a car, drive less even if they own one, and use alternative means of transportation more often. However, the reasons behind these trends, and their eventual persistence and effects on the use of other travel modes, are still largely unclear. This study aims to answer some of the questions through the analysis of a comprehensive dataset that was collected in fall 2015 from a sample of 2400 residents of California, including 1400 millennials (between 18 and 34) and 1000 members of the previous Generation X (35 to 50) recruited with a quota sampling approach from each of the six geographic regions of California and neighbourhood types (urban, suburban, and rural). The survey collected information on individuals’ personal attitudes and preferences, lifestyles, use of information and communication technology (ICT) devices and adoption of online social media, residential location and living arrangements, commuting and other travel patterns, current auto ownership, awareness, adoption and frequency of use of several types of shared mobility services, major life events that happened in the past three years, future aspirations and propensity to purchase and use a private vehicle vs. use other means of travel, and sociodemographic traits. Among others findings, the analysis of the dataset highlights how millennials consistently drive less and use all types of shared mobility included in the study (fleet-based car-sharing, peer-to-peer carsharing, dynamic carpooling, on-demand ride services such as Uber and Lyft, and bike-sharing) more often than older peers, in all regions of California. Among the somewhat concerning results (from the perspective of transportation sustainability, and of the adoption of active lifestyles), a non-trivial amount of young travellers are found to use Uber or Lyft in substitution of walking and biking, or for trips on which they would have otherwise used public transportation.
Leeds Liberty Building SR 1.14, Wednesday May 4 2016, 10:30am-12:30pm and livestreamed at Lancaster University, D72 FASS meeting room 11