TY - JOUR
T1 - Gentrification and the evolution of commuting behavior within America's urban cores, 2000–2015
AU - Bereitschaft, Bradley
N1 - Funding Information:
In contrast to educational attainment, UCs that experienced increases in income and home ownership rates saw declines in non-automotive commute modes when controlling for other variables. Higher income owner households are more likely to be auto-dependent as they presumably have more resources and more storage space to house and operate private vehicles (Dieleman et al., 2002). As neighborhoods gentrify, and lower income renter households are displaced, overall reliance on non-automotive forms of transit may also be expected to decline. This hypothesis is supported by the findings presented here as well as a report published by the U.S. Census Bureau indicating that rates of cycling- and walking-based commutes are highest among the lowest income groups (McKenzie, 2014). Overall, the results suggest that gentrification is likely to have a mixed impact on commuting behavior, with an increase in more educated renter households (the latter often associated with the denser urban cores of larger U.S. cities) more likely to result in an increase in non-automotive commuting, but an increase in higher income home owner households more likely to result in an overall decline.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author
PY - 2020/1
Y1 - 2020/1
N2 - This study examines recent changes (2000 - ~2015) in the socio-economic/demographic make-up of U.S. urban cores (UCs), and potential associations with commuting behavior including mode and time. Based on a sample of 101 UCs and their encompassing urbanized areas (UAs), the data suggest that UCs have undergone substantial demographic change during the first fifteen years of the 21st century, with key attributes of gentrification on the rise. At the same time, commuting via transit has declined faster within UCs than within their encompassing UAs, while the proportion of workers working from home and cycling to work grew faster than any other mode. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's decennial census and American Community Survey (ACS), a series of longitudinal regression models indicated several significant associations between common indicators of gentrification, including proportion of white/non-minority residents, home owners, young adults (18–39), household income, and proportion of college graduates, and changes in non-automotive commute modes (i.e. walking, cycling, transit). This may have implications for transportation infrastructure and policy as urban neighborhoods in the U.S. continue to undergo socio-economic/demographic change.
AB - This study examines recent changes (2000 - ~2015) in the socio-economic/demographic make-up of U.S. urban cores (UCs), and potential associations with commuting behavior including mode and time. Based on a sample of 101 UCs and their encompassing urbanized areas (UAs), the data suggest that UCs have undergone substantial demographic change during the first fifteen years of the 21st century, with key attributes of gentrification on the rise. At the same time, commuting via transit has declined faster within UCs than within their encompassing UAs, while the proportion of workers working from home and cycling to work grew faster than any other mode. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's decennial census and American Community Survey (ACS), a series of longitudinal regression models indicated several significant associations between common indicators of gentrification, including proportion of white/non-minority residents, home owners, young adults (18–39), household income, and proportion of college graduates, and changes in non-automotive commute modes (i.e. walking, cycling, transit). This may have implications for transportation infrastructure and policy as urban neighborhoods in the U.S. continue to undergo socio-economic/demographic change.
KW - Commuting behavior
KW - Gentrification
KW - Journey to work
KW - Neighborhood change
KW - Travel mode
KW - Urban Core
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.102559
DO - 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.102559
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85073548831
VL - 82
JO - Journal of Transport Geography
JF - Journal of Transport Geography
SN - 0966-6923
M1 - 102559
ER -