This study focuses on the impact of life-course events on car ownership and, ultimately, on travel behavior to provide a basis for measures influencing people toward a more sustainable mobility. The theoretical background for the analysis is the mobility biographies approach. This approach assumes that travel behavior is mainly habitual, and therefore, only relatively seldom do windows of opportunity open for behavioral changes when travel decisions are considered more intensively. Car ownership is used in the analysis as a proxy for actual travel behavior. Hence, the results may deliver some insight on the effect of key events in a person's or household's life on travel behavior and, further, the potential of soft policy intervention measures to change daily mobility. The German Socioeconomic Panel is used for the empirical analysis. The results show the importance of life-course events for travel behavior. Besides the household status variables of age, number of cars, and weighted monthly income, four key events have a strong impact on car ownership growth: the changing number of adults in a household, birth of the first child, changing weighted monthly income, and change of residence from a regional core to a regional core area. Expected influences from relocations with a spatial structural change have not been proved so far.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
WissenL. J. G. and Dykstra (eds.)P. A.Population Issues. An Interdisciplinary Focus.Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 1999.
2.
VerplankenB.AartsH. and Van KnippenbergA.. Habit, Information Acquisition, and the Process of Making Travel Mode Choices. European Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 27, 1997, pp. 539–560.
3.
OulletteJ. A. and WoodW.. Habit and Intention in Everyday Life: The Multiple Processes by Which Past Behavior Predicts Future Behavior. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 124, No. 11998, pp. 54–74.
4.
FujiiS. and GärlingT.. Development of Script-Based Travel Mode Choice After Forced Change. Transportation Research, Vol. 6F, 2003, pp. 117–124.
5.
BambergS.Is a Residential Move a Good Opportunity to Change Peoples’ Travel Behavior? Results from a Theory-Driven Intervention Study. Environment and Behavior, forthcoming.
6.
Van der WaerdenP.TimmermansH. J. P. and A. Borgers. The Influence of Key Events and Critical Incidents on Transport Mode Choice Switching Behavior: A Descriptive Analysis. Presented at 10th International Conference on Travel Behavior Research, Lucerne, Switzerland, Aug. 2003.
7.
HarmsS.Besitzen oder Teilen. Sozialwissenschaftliche Analyse des Car Sharings.Rüegger, Zürich, Switzerland, 2003.
8.
KlöcknerC. A.How Single Events Change Travel Mode Choice: A Life Span Perspective. Presented at the Third International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology, Nottingham, United Kingdom, Sept. 2004. 9. Franke, S. Car Sharing: Vom ökoprojekt zur Dienstleistung. Sigma, Berlin, 2001.
9.
SalomonI.Life Styles: A Broader Perspective on Travel Behavior. In Recent Advances in Travel Demand Analysis (CarpenterS. and JonesP., eds.), Gower, Aldershot, Hants, United Kingdom, 1983.
10.
LanzendorfM. Mobility Biographies: A New Perspective for Understanding Travel Behavior. Presented at 10th International Conference on Travel Behavior Research, Lucerne, Switzerland, Aug. 2003.
11.
HandyS.MokhtarianP. and BuehlerT.. Residential Location Choice and Travel Behavior: Implications for Air Quality.California Department of Transportation, Davis, 2004.
12.
De JongG.FoxJ.PietersM.VonkL. and DalyA.. Audit of Car Ownership Models.RAND Report 01192. Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management and RAND Europe, Leiden, Netherlands, 2002.
13.
HanlyM. and DargayJ.. Car Ownership in Great Britain: A Panel Data Analysis. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1718, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2000, pp. 83–89.
14.
KitamuraR. and BunchD. S.. Heterogeneity and State Dependence in Household Car Ownership: A Panel Analysis Using Ordered-Response Probit Models with Error Components. In Transportation and Traffic Theory (KoshiM., ed.), Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1990.
15.
MohammadianA. and MillerE. J.. Dynamic Modeling of Household Automobile Transactions. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1831, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2003, pp. 98–105.
16.
KrizekK. J.Residential Relocation and Changes in Urban Travel. Does Neighborhood-Scale Urban Form Matter?Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 69, No. 32003, pp. 265–281.
17.
ScheinerJ.Auswirkungen der Stadt- und Umlandwanderung auf Motorisierung und Verkehrsmittelnutzung. Verkehrsforschung online, Vol. 1, 2005. www.verkehrsforschung-online.de. Accessed Dec. 2005.
18.
StanbridgeK.LyonsG. and FarthingS.. Travel Behavior Change and Residential Relocation. Presented at Third International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology, Nottingham, United Kingdom, Sept. 2004.
19.
BlotevogelH. and JeschkeM. A.. Stadt-Umland-Wanderungen im Ruhrgebiet.Final Report. University Duisburg-Essen, Germany, 2003.
20.
MolinE. and TimmermansH. J. P.. Accessibility Considerations in Residential Choice Decisions: Accumulated Evidence from the Benelux. Presented at 82nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2003.
21.
TimmermansH. J. P. The Saga of Integrated Land Use-Transport Modeling: How Many More Dreams Before We Wake Up? Presented at 10th International Conference on Travel Behavior Research, Lucerne, Aug. 2003.
22.
GaydaS.Stated Preference Survey on Residential Location Choice in Brussels. In Selected Proceedings from the 8th World Conference on Transport Research, Pergamon, Antwerp, Belgium, 1998.
23.
CooperJ.RyleyT. and SmithA.. Energy Trade-Offs and Market Responses in Transport and Residential Land Use Patterns. Urban Studies, Vol. 38, 2001, pp. 1573–1588.
24.
WalkerB.MarshA.WardmanM. and NinerP.. Modelling Tenants’ Choices in the Public Rented Sector: A Stated Preference Approach. Urban Studies, Vol. 39, 2002, pp. 665–688.
25.
A Representative Longitudinal Study of Private Households in the Entire Federal Republic of Germany. GSOEP, German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin, 2003.
26.
Statistisches Bundesamt (ed.) Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnungen: Nettoeinkommen und Zahl der Haushalte nach Haushaltsgruppen 1991 bis 2002. Wiesbaden, Germany, 2003.
27.
BIK-Regionen: Ballungsräume, Stadtregionen, Mittel-/Unterzentrengebiete. Methodenbeschreibung zur Aktualisierung 2000. BIK Aschpurwis und Behrens GmbH, Hamburg, Germany, 2001.
28.
NiefertM.Räumliche Mobilität und Wohnungsnachfrage: Eine empirische Analyse des Umzugsverhaltens in Westdeutschland.Lit-Verlag, Münster, Germany, 2003.
29.
DargayJ.Determinants of Car Ownership in Rural and Urban Areas: A Pseudopanel Analysis. Transportation Research, Vol. 38E, 2002, pp. 351–366.
