Rural–nonrural divide in car access and unmet travel need in the United States

Car access is practically a necessity to get around in rural areas of the United States. Yet approximately 4% of rural residents or 4.3 million people do not have a car. Despite important rural–nonrural differences in the built environment and how people travel, research on rural mobility disparities by car access is limited. This paper addresses this gap by asking and answering the following questions: (1) What are the scope and scale of rural car access in the U.S. and what are the factors associated with not having a car? (2) How do rural carless residents get around relative to their nonrural peers? (3) What are the consequences of not having car access in rural areas? We used a dichotomous rural–nonrural classification to evaluate differences in car access and mobility outcomes between rural and nonrural areas using the U.S. Census Bureau Public Use Microdata Sample and the National Household Travel Survey. The results reveal new evidence on socioeconomic and mobility disparities by car access within and between rural and nonrural areas. Rural carless households earn 64% less and 40% less than their counterparts with full car access and their nonrural counterparts, respectively. Rural Native Americans, Black, and Asian populations have a 2.1 times, 1.3 times, and 1.3 times the odds of being carless, respectively, than their rural white peers, after controlling for other factors. Despite their lack of access to a car, a significantly smaller proportion of rural carless residents bike, walk, or take transit for work trips than their nonrural peers (38.9% vs. 74.6%), which may indicate infeasibility of sustainable modes in some rural areas. Consequently, rural carless residents are 2 times more likely to forsake trips than their nonrural peers due to a lack of transportation options. Our findings highlight rural mobility inequities that carless people face relative to their nonrural peers, which merit attention and tailored policy interventions to improve rural mobility, sustainability, accessibility, and equity.