Abstract
Generational change is one of the vital socioeconomic forces affecting the global economic environment. In many studies, the youngest generations are presented as the ones changing the market trends. This can also be observed in areas of travel demand and mobility patterns. However, research on those topics in many countries, for many societies, is scarce. This study aimed to examine the travel behavior of Polish young adults, namely students living in the Tricity area. Factor analysis and ANOVA were used to analyze the data gathered via an online survey assessing the characteristics of mobility patterns of students born between 1981 and 1999. Factor analysis allowed grouping the attitudes towards traveling among those young adults (Y Generation, Y’s, Y Gen). Three factors were identified, and they were associated with luxury and self-expression, freedom and comfort, safety and environmental friendliness. The driver’s characteristics were the least consistent with the classic image of typical Y’s, and those using the active commute—the most. In turn, the largest group were people using public transport, which partially presented convergent opinions with drivers and users of the active commute. It turned out that the car drivers, active commuters and respondents utilizing public transport differed not only in their behavior and presentation of Y Gen characteristics but also in their attitude towards categories such as comfort, desire for luxury, economy or ecology. This study is a complex analysis of the mobility patterns of students in the Tricity area. It presents the set of variables influencing the travel demand of the chosen age group. The study also compares the presented travel choices with those declared by representatives of other nations. Finally, it indicates the next research problems to be addressed in future research.
Highlights
Published: 7 January 2021A group of various socioeconomic trends, including the generational transition, causes changes in the global economic environment
Mobility patterns are described as mobility choices [5], travel choices [6], travel demand [7,8,9]
Researchers used the theory of planned behavior [35,36,37], social cognitive theory [38,39], energy cultures framework approach [11,33], and socioecological models described by Sigurdardottir et al [22] to explain the mobility choices of young adults
Summary
Published: 7 January 2021A group of various socioeconomic trends, including the generational transition, causes changes in the global economic environment. According to Strauss-Howe generational theory [1], there are recurring generational cycles, which change the priorities of societies in various world regions The differences in this matter relate to mobility patterns, which are a result of those changing priorities but are forces in the social and physical environment [2,3,4]. In the literature, both the Y Generation and mobility patterns are called in many different ways, which causes ambiguities in defining the state-of-the-art in the discussed topic. The Y Generation is called “tech-savvy consumers” [6,10], “millennials” or “millennial generation” [11,12,13,14], “next-generation” [3],
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