Travel patterns of people of color

Over the decades, public and private travel among Americans has increased significantly, making America one of the most mobile of societies.  However, many policy-makers are concerned that the nature and distribution of travel are uneven, especially with regards to people of color.  Developing a broader understanding of travel behavior of people of color, which includes African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and others, is essential to create a more equitable distribution of transportation system options.  This understanding involves many aspects, including why, when, and how people travel, and how each of these aspects varies with time, geography, and population characteristics. There is still very little known about the travel patterns of people of color.  Only recently have significant efforts been made to better understand travel behavior among racial and ethnic groups.  This topic joins a small but growing field in transportation research that analyzes other issues of equity in travel including gender, age, disability, and wealth.

The population of people of color is growing and this growth is expected to grow much faster than thepopulation of Whites well into the 21th century.  Thus, this is an increasingly important share of total travel demand.  Travel by people of color is changing rapidly, with significant increases in travel and changes in mode choice.  A high level of mobility is essential to the lifestyles and economic well-being ofall people; historically, many people of color have not enjoyed as high a level of mobility as the White population.  In many ways, people of color have yet to experience some of the shifts in travel that have occurred for Whites.  The trends may be converging in some important measures of mobility, but the speed of convergence is slow.  Some of the delay is caused by the wide range of incomes, education, and travel choices within these populations.

This report begins to develop a body of literature on travel by people of color to better understand how Americans of all ethnic backgrounds are using our transportation systems today and to generate ideas to improve transportation mobility. The majority of the data used in these papers is from the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS) and the U.S. decennial Census.  This report is a compilation of seven separate papers, each with its own specific focus and point of view.  The topics include race, inequality, and travel patterns; demographics; commuting; residential location; mode choice; and gender differences.

The first chapter, “Race, Inequality, and Travel Patterns Among People of Color,” was written by Abel Valenzuela Jr., associate director for the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, Institute for Social Science Research, University of California, Los Angeles.   The chapter provides a context for understanding social and economic inequality in the U.S. among people of color and how this inequality is connected to transportation patterns.  Valenzuela addresses two key issues: the nature of inequality in the U.S. and travel patterns as they relate to inequality.  He provides a broad overview of inequality, highlighting three particular areas of importance: immigration and rapid demographic change; economic restructuring and persistent inequality; and persistent racial residential segregation.

Valenzuela finds that uneven outcomes exist by race, ethnicity, gender, and age on a number of social indicators, including the distribution of transportation resources and travel patterns.  As travel patterns have changed, so have the contours of race and inequality in the U.S.  Travel patterns among people of color are complex but clearly differentiated from the White population and other subcategories such as gender and age.  Understanding inequality is part of the solution, as is understanding the role that uneven transportation opportunities, investments, and uses have in maintaining dichotomous relationships among different socioeconomic indicators.