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Travel Time Use Over Five Decades

Author

Listed:
  • Chen Song

    (Department of Economics/Institute for International Economic Policy, George Washington University)

  • Chao Wei

    (Department of Economics/Institute for International Economic Policy, George Washington University)

Abstract

In this paper, we use five decades of time use surveys, including the annual American Time Use Survey between 2003 and 2013, to document travel time uses in the aggregate and across demographic groups. We find that total travel time features an inverted-U shape over time, registering a 20 percent increase from 1975 to 1993, but an 18 percent decline from 1993 to 2013. We find that demographic shifts explain around 45 percent of the increase in total travel time from 1975 to 1993. Increases in educational attainment alone contribute to around 28 percent of the increase. Demographic shifts play a much smaller role in the evolution of total travel time afterwards. From 2003 to 2013 the shift of time allocation from travel-intensive non-market work to travel-non-intensive leisure accounts for around 50 percent of the decline in total travel time.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen Song & Chao Wei, 2015. "Travel Time Use Over Five Decades," Working Papers 2015-19, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2015-19
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Travel time use; Time use survey; Market work; Non-market work; Leisure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation

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