Are young adults car-loving urbanites? Comparing young and older adults’ residential location choice, travel behavior and attitudes

Abstract

Abstract Previous studies mostly indicate that young adults travel less by car compared to their older counterparts, partly due to postponing driving license holding and car ownership. Furthermore, these young adults might also prefer living in urban, low-traffic neighborhoods, further reducing car use. In this study we analyze the residential location choice, travel behavior and travel attitudes of young versus older adults (respectively born after 1984 and before 1985), using 1376 recently relocated residents from the city of Ghent (Belgium). Results indicate that travel mode frequency does not considerably differ between young and older adults, although young adults – compared to older adults – live more often in urban-type neighborhoods. This might be partly explained by young adults’ relatively positive attitudes towards car use and negative attitudes towards walking and low-traffic investments. These attitudes consequently seem to counterbalance the effects of the residential neighborhood on travel mode frequency. The fact that respondents’ travel attitudes are often not in line with their chosen residential neighborhood suggests limited self-selection effects. Results from this study partly contradict earlier findings on young adults’ travel behavior and indicate that further research is needed on the links between travel behavior, attitudes and residential location choice of different age groups.