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How does the extent of automobile use affect the level of satisfaction that people derive from their daily travel routine, after controlling for many other attributes including socio-economic and demographic characteristics, attitudinal factors, and lifestyle proclivities and preferences? This is the research question addressed by this paper. In this study, data collected from four automobile-dominated metropolitan regions in the United States (Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta, and Tampa) are used to assess the impact of the amount of driving that individuals undertake on the level of satisfaction that they derive from their daily travel routine. This research effort recognizes the presence of endogeneity when modeling multiple behavioral phenomena of interest and the role that latent attitudinal constructs reflecting lifestyle preferences play in shaping the association between behavioral mobility choices and degree of satisfaction. The model is estimated using the generalized heterogeneous data model (GHDM) methodology. Results show that latent attitudinal factors representing an environmentally friendly lifestyle, a proclivity toward car ownership and driving, and a desire to live close to transit and in diverse land use patterns affect the relative frequency of auto-driving mode use for non-commute trips and level of satisfaction with daily travel routine. Additionally, the amount of driving positively affects satisfaction with daily travel routine, implying that bringing about mode shifts toward more sustainable alternatives remains a formidable challenge—particularly in automobile-centric contexts.

This article uses data from the first wave of the COVID Future Panel study to evaluate attitudes towards COVID-19 and their influence on traveler behaviors. An exploratory factor analysis identified two underlying constructs based on the measured attitudes, namely "Concern about Pandemic Response" and "COVID Health Concern." A cluster analysis based on the factor scores yielded four groups with distinct attitudes. Those primarily concerned about the pandemic response traveled the most using private vehicles, while those equally concerned about the response to the pandemic and the health effects of COVID-19 were found to use personal bicycles and transit the most. QuestionsThis article investigates the relationship between attitudes toward COVID-19 and traveler behavior, particularly focusing on mode use and activity engagement during the pandemic. While attitudes toward COVID-19 have already been identified as affecting current and expected post-pandemic behaviors (Conway et al. 2020;, this study explicitly distinguishes between and focuses on concerns about the response to the pandemic (as in a feeling that society is over-reacting and the economic impacts of shutting down are not justified) and health concerns about having a severe reaction to COVID.The analysis in this article identified Concern about Pandemic Response and COVID Health Concern as two different attitudinal constructs. The research addresses how these COVID-19 attitudinal constructs are associated with traveler behaviors observed during the pandemic. MethodsThis study uses data from the first wave of the COVID Future Panel Survey (Salon et al. 2021;Chauhan, Conway, et al. 2021). The sample includes 7,593 respondents from across the United States (US) who completed the survey between June and October 2020 (Wave 1b). The data were weighted to replicate national distributions of age, education, gender, Hispanic status, household income, presence of children, and number of household vehicles. Importantly, the weighting methodology adjusted for the marginal distributions without inflating the sample size (for more information, please refer to Chauhan, Conway, et al. 2021).

Transportation has been experiencing disruptive forces in recent years. One key disruption is the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs) that will be capable of navigating roadways on their own without the need for human presence in the vehicle. In a utopian scenario, AVs may enter the transportation landscape and foster a more sustainable and livable ecosystem with shared autonomous electric vehicles (SAEV) serving mobility needs and eliminating the need for private ownership. In a more dystopian scenario, AVs would be personally owned by households—enabling people to live farther away from destinations, inducing additional travel, and roaming roadways with zero occupants. Concerned with the potential deleterious effects of having personal AVs running errands autonomously, this paper aims to shed light on the level of interest in sending AVs to run errands and how that variable affects the intent to own an AV. Using data from a survey conducted in 2019 in four automobile-oriented metropolitan regions in the United States, the relationship is explored through a joint model system estimated using the generalized heterogeneous data model (GHDM) methodology. Results show that even after accounting for socio-economic and demographic variables as well as latent attitudinal constructs, the level of interest in having AVs run errands has a positive and significant effect on AV ownership intent. The findings point to the need for policies that would steer the entry and use of AVs in the marketplace in ways that avoid a dystopian future.

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