Car-less or car-free? Socioeconomic and mobility differences among zero-car households

Transportation professionals have long identified the important division between choice and constraint in modal decision-making. However, while heterogeneity within some modal groups such as transit riders is well documented, intragroup differences in other groups have been largely ignored. In particular, significant heterogeneity exists among zero-car households, who may not own a car due to choice (car-free) or constraint (car-less). Recognition of intragroup heterogeneity among zero-car households yields policy implications as cities consider where to invest their ever more precious and more limited transportation resources. Using activity diary data from the 2012 California Household Travel Survey, I investigate two research questions: first, how do car-less households compare to car-free households in terms of both their socioeconomic characteristics and their relative share of zero-car households? Second, how do motivations behind not owning a car translate into mobility differences - including daily trip counts and miles traveled? I find that, contrary to media reports that the number of car-free households—that is, households that choose not to own a car—is “booming”, 79 percent of zero-car households do not own a car because of economic or physical constraints. Car-less households in many ways mirror the captive transit population, in that they have significantly lower household incomes, lower educational attainments, and are disproportionately non-white compared to car-free households. Observed socioeconomic variations translate into mobility differences, with car-free travelers taking more trips and traveling more miles per day. Policy makers should consider extending access to carshare services, which are positively associated with more trips and miles traveled among both car-free and car-less households.