Investigation of Heterogeneity in Vehicle Ownership and Usage for the Millennial Generation

Abstract

This paper explores differences in activity-travel behavior within the millennial generation with a view to better understand how their choices might shape transportation systems of the future. Through the estimation of a Generalized Heterogeneous Data Model on a special millennial mobility attitudes survey data set, this study investigates heterogeneity among millennials with respect to their driver's license holding status, vehicle ownership, and commute mode choice. After accounting for self-selection effects, age, parenting status, and location of residence have a substantial and statistically significant influence on auto-oriented mobility choices. Millennials seem to become more auto-oriented as they age and gain economic resources. Parenthood is associated with an increase in driver's license holding and personal vehicle ownership; however, in general, it does not seem to have a direct impact on commute mode choice. For all types of millennials, mode choice seems to be strongly related with residential location. Thus, the development of a well-connected public transit system and dense, mixed land-use are still the key ingredients to reducing car commute. Planning professionals should explore ways to retain millennials in the city core so that their sustainable transportation mode use patterns can be preserved into the future.

What drives the gap? Applying the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method to examine generational differences in transportation-related attitudes

“…As discussed in the "Background" section, a substantial body of work indicates that Millennials have been bucking the upward trend on car ownership and VMT (Buchholz and Buchholz 2012;Delbosc and Currie 2013;Kuhnimhof et al 2012;McDonald 2015;Polzin et al 2014;Schoettle 2011, 2012), with recent concern in the literature about the stability of this deviation (Blumenberg et al 2012;Delbosc and Nakanishi 2017;Garikapati et al 2016;Lavieri et al 2017;Newbold and Scott 2017). In this study, this construct measures attitudes toward car ownership, with one indicator related to general attitudes toward owning material goods.…”

“…Generation X) epitomize the suburban lifestyle, with their minivans and long commutes. This construct allows us to test that expectation with the current sample, as it reflects the mindset of respondents toward living in urban rather than suburban or rural areas-residential location choices that are critically tied to travel behavior (Ewing and Cervero 2010;Handy et al 2005;Lavieri et al 2017). As such, a higher score on this construct tends to signify a preference for living in mixed-use developments with high transit accessibility, even if it means sacrificing larger home and/or yard sizes.…”

“…Regarding transport and land use, Millennials have been capturing the attention of transportation professionals ever since they came of age, with increased preferences for living in urban centers (Delbosc and Nakanishi 2017;Okulicz-Kozaryn and Valente 2018), accompanied by reduced rates of licensure (Delbosc and Currie 2013;Schoettle 2011, 2012), vehicle ownership, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) (Hopkins 2016;Kuhnimhof et al 2012;Polzin et al 2014), leading to them being dubbed the "go-nowhere" generation (Buchholz and Buchholz 2012; McDonald 2015) (in contradiction to their afore-discussed penchant for traveling abroad). Recent work has suggested that differences in transport choices may be attributable to temporary environmental/external factors; for example, as Millennials enter later life stages (i.e., with children/families), lack of affordable options such as urban housing (among other reasons) may be causing their behavioral patterns to converge with those of prior generations (Delbosc and Nakanishi 2017;Garikapati et al 2016;Lavieri et al 2017). Relatedly, researchers have found that some behavioral differences may be due to economic factors, suggesting that as Millennials become more financially independent, attributes like vehicle ownership may converge with or even surpass those of prior generations (Klein and Smart 2017;Lavieri et al 2017).…”

“…Recent work has suggested that differences in transport choices may be attributable to temporary environmental/external factors; for example, as Millennials enter later life stages (i.e., with children/families), lack of affordable options such as urban housing (among other reasons) may be causing their behavioral patterns to converge with those of prior generations (Delbosc and Nakanishi 2017;Garikapati et al 2016;Lavieri et al 2017). Relatedly, researchers have found that some behavioral differences may be due to economic factors, suggesting that as Millennials become more financially independent, attributes like vehicle ownership may converge with or even surpass those of prior generations (Klein and Smart 2017;Lavieri et al 2017). External factors of influence that are less likely to change over time include recent policies intended to encourage smart development (ex.…”

Environmental Aspects of Generation Y’s Sustainable Mobility

“…Raunio [42] divides the whole Millennials group into few cohorts: Generation Why (1982)(1983)(1984)(1985), middle-Millennials (1985-1999) and iGeneration (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002), and the middle one presents the core values and opinions usually assigned to young adults. Some divide the Millennials into the younger (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24) and older ones (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35), but sometimes it does not correspond to the most popular approach to generational theory [43,44]. Generally, Millennials are people born between 1981 and 1999, characterised by the widespread adoption of new technologies, especially the internet, cell phones, and social networks, which have been hypothesised as influencing on young adults' mobility, among others, through using Mobility-as-a-Service services (for example Uber, Lyft) [45].…”