Generation Y Mobilities: Full Report

2015

This report examines the mobility behaviours and preferences of generation Y New Zealanders. It presents empirical material collected through 51 qualitative interviews with members of generation Y (people born from 1980 onwards). The interviews took place during 2014 with 18-35 year olds in Auckland, Dunedin and Balclutha, to represent both urban and rural geographic contexts. The interview participants included individuals without a driver's licence (n=16), with a learner's permit (n=14), with a restricted licence (n=5), and with a full licence (n=16). The research was stimulated by the recognition that, in many parts of the industrialised world, generation Y are travelling in different ways to earlier generations, moving away from private car dependency norms, and using active, public and virtual mobilities to achieve their mobility needs. The outcomes of stabilising or declining licencing, car ownership rates and vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) has potentially major implications for industry and governments. So far these changes are evident in many, but not all, developed and developing countries, including New Zealand. This research finds evidence of traditional learn to drive norms promoting learning to drive and car-based travel, as well as a emergent norms rejecting car-dependency and perceiving freedom and independence to arise from multimodal transport systems. The motivations for learning to drive differ within generation Y. For younger generation Y, parental encouragement and financial support, social norms and a perceived need associated with social and sporting activities all encouraged learning to drive as early as possible. However for older generation Y, access to a vehicle, needing a licence for employment or employability, and social expectations were all dominant motivations. Non-driving can be a permanent or temporary mobility status for generation Y. Motivations for permanent nondriving relate to environmental concern and negative perceptions of car-based travel (e.g. congestion and cost). Temporary non-driving is often linked to a specific purpose or time period, such as urban living, or alternative financial priorities (e.g. saving for overseas travel or a mortgage). These findings highlight the heterogeneity of mobility practices and the need for more in-depth studies of the generation Y mobility phenomenon.

2015

This grounded study explores the role of transport, broadly conceived, in shaping and differentiating the everyday mobilities of children and young people in contemporary urban Australia. Drawing on approaches from across urban, transport and children and young people's geographies, and the sociology of mobilities, the research investigated the everyday travel of 82 children, aged 9 to 12 years, and 176 young people, aged 13 to 15 years, living in Blacktown, Western Sydney who described their use of transport to a range of educational, social, cultural and recreational activities. Blacktown epitomises many aspects of urban Australia. Blacktown is a local government area with a large, rapidly growing, comparatively youthful, culturally and socially diverse population of more than 300,000 people. It has a variety of urban forms and is serviced by a mix of public transport, local buses and rapid bus transit ways, and the metropolitan road and rail networks. The research was conducted in government schools (five secondary and three primary schools) located in five different neighbourhoods. The neighbourhoods were distinguished by their location in relation to the Blacktown city centre, urban form and socioeconomic characteristics. The research adopted a child-focussed methodology and a mixed method design. A variety of quantitative and qualitative data was derived from classroom discussions, local area walking tours with photography, video recordings, individual drawings, maps, travel and activity diaries and interviews. From the materials produced this thesis illustrates how children and young people are negotiating their everyday mobilities afforded by the available transport network as well as by the dynamics of their own households. It argues that children's and young people's 'everyday mobilities' are irreducibly situated within the context of their households and urban spaces, which must be better understood and adequately addressed in policy and planning to achieve a more age-responsive, sociallyinclusive urban transport policy and planning. v Table of Contents Statement of Authentication .

2005

This report has been commissioned by Environment Waikato (EW) as part of its review of the Land Transport Strategy for the Waikato region. The report identifies key population characteristics that impact on transport needs of the EW region and the constituent Territorial Authority (TA) areas. In this context, vulnerable locations and populations are identified. Future trends for the EW region and sub-regions are assessed by means of low, medium and high population growth scenarios, and the implications of the projected changes in population size and composition for transport needs are identified. A general theme throughout this report is that in many respect demographic change in the Waikato region is not that different from that in New Zealand as a whole, but there are sharp differences between the constituent TA areas. The report covers changes in population size and structure, ethnic structure, the labour force, income, housing tenure and motor vehicle ownership, deprivation and projections of locally generated trips, the number of motor vehicles and travel to work flows. It is noted that a comprehensive assessment of transport need should embed demographic change into an integrated model of economic change in the region, combined with scenarios relating to external factors and policy changes.

The 21st century seems to be on the move, perhaps even more so than the last. With cheap travel, and more than two billion cars projected worldwide for 2030. And yet, all this mobility is happening incredibly unevenly, at different paces and intensities, with varying impacts and consequences to the extent that life on the move might be actually quite difficult to sustain environmentally, socially and ethically. As a result 'mobility' has become a keyword of the social sciences; delineating a new domain of concepts, approaches, methodologies and techniques which seek to understand the character and quality of these trends. This Handbook explores and critically evaluates the debates, approaches, controversies and methodologies, inherent to this rapidly expanding discipline. It brings together leading specialists from range of backgrounds and geographical regions to provide an authoritative and comprehensive overview of this field, conveying cutting edge research in an accessib...

Sustainability, 2019

This research paper identifies and explores the opinions and attitudes of young people about urban transport. It is the first study on this topic, based on the survey, analysing the mobility choices of young adults (more specifically, Generation Y) in Poland and for countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The aim of the paper is to show their travel behaviour from sustainable mobility perspective. The primary data was obtained through the online survey. The data analysis was held with use of factor analysis and ANOVA. The research results indicated the variables influencing the environmental dimension of sustainable mobility attitudes of young adults in four areas: the ecology-oriented approach to transport, opinions about sharing economy, public car concept and future transport system. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences in the ecology-oriented approach between people born in different decades, between men and women and between people with driving licences and people without them. Those results provide the insights for local authorities and mobility service providers. The recommendations at the end of the paper focus on the need for continuation of research in similar fields.

Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 2018

Objective: Transport impacts teenagers by affecting their autonomy and independent access to activities. This manuscript reports descriptive findings of transport behaviours among teenagers in Southland, New Zealand, and discusses the implications of these for public health and policy. Methods: An online survey was implemented to investigate transport among respondents aged 16 years and older from twelve secondary schools. Two methods of survey distribution were used (in-class and at home). Descriptive results were analysed using Stata. Results: Response rate was 71.5% (n=775). The most common forms of transport were as a passenger in a car and walking. Two-thirds of participants had some form of driving licence. Half the sample expressed frustration at being unable to access activities. Significant gender differences existed regarding transport and types of activities accessed. Licence status was associated with physical activity, screen time and transport frustration. Conclusions: The transport decisions made by teenagers, in aggregate, have implications for policy and infrastructure, and findings provide a foundation for discussions around potential changes to driver education programming, the school uniform policy in New Zealand and further research. Implications for public health: Inquiring about everyday transport habits, outside of the trip to school, and activities accessed provided data about an under-researched group, supporting the ecological approach to transport in the context of public health.