Are Millennials Really the “Go-Nowhere” Generation?

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings: News reports and academic articles contend that Millennials (those born in the last two decades of the 20th century) are different from earlier generations in their consumption and travel patterns. This article investigates the travel behavior of young American adults and compares the behavior of Millennials with those of previous generations using data from the 1995, 2001, and 2009 National Household Travel Surveys. The analysis uses descriptive statistics to profile trends and regression models to identify the factors associated with decreased travel by Millennials. In fact, automobility declines for all Americans between 1995 and 2009, but the drops are largest for Millennials and younger members of Generation X starting in the late 1990s. Decreases in driving are not compensated by increases in the use of other modes for travel, nor do decreased trip distances explain the downturn in automobility. Among young adults, lifestyle-related demographic shifts, including decreased employment, explain 10% to 25% of the decrease in driving; Millennial-specific factors such as changing attitudes and use of virtual mobility (online shopping, social media) explain 35% to 50% of the drop in driving; and the general dampening of travel demand that occurred across all age groups accounts for the remaining 40%.

Takeaway for practice: These changes highlight two challenges to planners and policymakers: managing increases in automobility as Millennials age and their economic fortunes improve, and developing improved planning processes that deal robustly with the uncertain future presented by Millennials who may continue to make very different travel choices than comparable people did in the past.

Keywords:

• Millennials
• automobility
• peak travel
• travel behavior
• licensure

Acknowledgment

Allison Bullock greatly contributed to earlier versions of this article as a research assistant at UNC Chapel Hill.

Notes

1 Curry, Kim, and Pfeiffer (2014) have questioned the quality of the FHWA licensure data and shown differences in estimates of licensed young adults between FHWA estimates and New Jersey administrative data. However, data from large-scale public health surveys also show similar declines in licensure as the FHWA data (Shults & Williams, 2013).

2 Prior to 2001, the surveys were known as the National Personal Transportation Survey.

3 The NHTS asks, “Are you a driver?” and does not ask about specific licensure status.