Going Nowhere Fast: Why Personal Travel is Down Across the U.S.

Abstract

In a new study, researchers at Clemson University and the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies suggest we may be seeing a fundamental change in the demand for out-of-home activities that drive vehicle travel. Using data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) collected between 2003 and 2019, the authors propose that the fundamental cause of declining per capita travel time is an underlying reduction in the demand for out-of-home activities, driven in part by spectacular advancements in information and communications technology.

About the Project

While many aspects of life have largely returned to pre-pandemic patterns as the COVID-19 pandemic has become endemic, several aspects of travel remain unsettled and uncertain. In particular, the forced experiment of working from home for at least half of the labor force in 2020 is evolving into a new normal where perhaps a third of all workers split their work hours between office and home. This has had especially significant effects on public transit, which has traditionally carried a disproportionate share of commute trips, but these new work patterns have affected the timing and character of many other trips as well. These evolving patterns of travel may call into question many current transportation policies and plans that are premised on (now) outdated ideas about travel.