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Can environmental awareness explain declining preference for car-based mobility amongst generation Y? A qualitative examination of learn to drive behaviours

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  • Hopkins, Debbie

Abstract

Preference for private, motorised transportation grew substantially throughout the global North, during the 20th Century. Through this time rates of licencing, and car ownership, and vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) rose across age groups. This had a range of environmental and social equity implications, and ignited a priority for investment in road infrastructure. The system of automobility was cemented by lock-in through the assemblage of infrastructure, technologies, policies and behaviours supporting, and frequently requiring, car based mobility. Yet recent evidence has shown that generation Y (18–35year olds) are practicing mobility in different ways to earlier generations. Stabilising and declining rates of VKT, licencing and vehicle ownership have been identified in a range of industrialised countries. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this paper draws from theories of social practice and the theory of planned behaviour, as two traditions to examine what people ‘do’, focusing on the social and the individual respectively. It examines the motivations to learn to drive (LTD), and the preference for driving in New Zealand, a highly car-dependent country, empirically drawing from 51 qualitative interviews. A series of meta-themes are presented and used to explain intended and actual behaviour relating to driving practices. The empirical research finds a diversity of highly nuanced interpretations of LTD, some of which reflect individual characteristics, whilst other interpretations are best understood grounded in a wider societal reading of contemporary trends and meanings. Frequently, justification for learning to drive goes beyond the competency and capacity to drive independently. Implications for policy and planning are detailed.

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  • Hopkins, Debbie, 2016. "Can environmental awareness explain declining preference for car-based mobility amongst generation Y? A qualitative examination of learn to drive behaviours," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 149-163.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:94:y:2016:i:c:p:149-163
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2016.08.028
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    12. Hopkins, Debbie & Stephenson, Janet, 2016. "The replication and reduction of automobility: Findings from Aotearoa New Zealand," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 92-101.
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    16. Wang, Kailai & Wang, Xize, 2021. "Generational Differences in Automobility: Comparing America's Millennials and Gen Xers Using Gradient Boosting Decision Trees," SocArXiv n3a9e, Center for Open Science.
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    22. Michał Suchanek & Agnieszka Szmelter-Jarosz, 2019. "Environmental Aspects of Generation Y’s Sustainable Mobility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-13, June.
    23. Teoh, Roger & Anciaes, Paulo & Jones, Peter, 2020. "Urban mobility transitions through GDP growth: Policy choices facing cities in developing countries," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    24. Morris, Eric A. & Speroni, Samuel & Taylor, Brian D., 2023. "Going nowhere fast: Might changing activity patterns help explain falling travel?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    25. Thigpen, Calvin, 2017. "The Reciprocal Relationship between Children and Young Adults' Travel Behavior and Their Travel Attitudes, Skills, and Norms," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt383679dd, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.

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