Getting by with a little help from my friends…and family: immigrants and carpooling

Abstract

While much of the scholarly literature on immigrants' travel focuses on transit use, the newest arrivals to the United States make over twelve times as many trips by carpool as by transit. Using the 2001 National Household Travel Survey and multinomial logit mode choice models, we examine the determinants of carpooling. In particular, we focus on the likelihood of carpooling among immigrants-carpooling both within and across households. After controlling for relevant determinants of carpooling, we find that immigrants are far more likely to form household carpools than native-born adults and also are more likely than the native-born to form external carpools (outside the household). Moreover, when faced with the options of carpooling and public transit, immigrants-even recent arrivals-appear to prefer carpools over transit more strongly than the native born.

Restrained mobility in a high-accessible and migrant-rich area in downtown Beijing

“…Additionally, these enclaves provide selfemployment opportunities for people offering ethnically sensitive products and services [11]. Transportation scholars have found that these enclaves provide major support for social networks that in turn furnish a large share of transportation resources [4]; thus, immigrants living in enclaves have a higher likelihood of carpooling or taking public transit. By relying on these shared transportation resources, especially informal ones, immigrants improve their access to employment, socialization, and other daily activities, thereby enhancing the social capital of their ethnic neighborhood.…”

“…Many previous studies have found that immigrants in ethnic enclaves, in comparison to native-born residents and immigrants living in other neighborhoods, tended to travel more often by carpooling, public transit and other alternative modes [4]. Immigrants living in neighborhoods with higher ethnic concentration were much more likely to carpool [48,52].…”

“…Immigrants relied on social networks, such as close friends and family members, to share car travel by either informal or formally negotiated exchanges [10]. In addition to carpooling, immigrants also had a higher rate of public transit use than native-born residents [4,48]. Glaeser et al [53] claimed that public transit accessibility was an important determinant of residential location choice for the urban poor without automobiles, a group that includes most immigrants living in a downtown area.…”

“…The literature on the travel behavior of immigrants is growing, because transportation This article is part of Topical Collection on Transport poverty, equity and environmental justice scholars and policymakers are interested in how demographic changes related to immigration should influence future transportation planning [4,5]. Additionally, understanding the transportation needs and barriers encountered by immigrants is important to help them access employment, education, healthcare, and other opportunities and thus achieve social inclusion [6,7].…”

“…Previous findings have indicated that these immigrants are especially likely to carpool, relying on their social networks within the enclaves [4,9,10]. Immigrants can overcome some transportation difficulties through carpooling, but this dependence often causes their non-work activity space to become restricted to within the enclave [11].…”