Mobility Biographies: A Life-Course Approach to Travel Behaviour and Residential Choice

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Holz-Rau; Professor Dr. Martin Lanzendorf; Professor Dr. Joachim Scheiner
• Subject Area: Urbanism, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: from 2011 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 198788666

Recently, the mobility biography approach has gained increasing attention for studying stability and changes of individuals' travel behaviour. Frequently, three characteristics of the life course are emphasised as playing a decisive role in travel behaviour changes: household and family biography, employment biography, and residential biographies. In the first funding phase, an existing multi-generational data set in Dortmund was digitalised and checked for plausibility. First hypotheses were developed and analysed regarding intergenerational effects, socialisation, life events and their combined impact on travel behaviour. The initial theoretical models and hypotheses were developed further, and first results obtained.In the follow-up project, initial hypotheses of the first project phase will be analysed in more depth using multivariate methods. Furthermore, the intention is to gather additional data in the metropolitan regions of Frankfurt and Zurich for simultaneous comparison between different locations and occupational groups. Based on the results of the first project phase, we find the analysis of (1) gender, (2) age and generation, (3) external factors like accessibility indicators, (4) types of mobility biographies, and (5) the integration and theoretical conclusions for all sub-projects particularly promising. Beyond the conclusions for the development of travel behaviour change theory, policy recommendations will also be derived and discussed with policymakers.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Partner Organisation: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)
• Participating Person: Professor Dr.-Ing. Kay W. Axhausen