Youth Mobility and Territorial Disparities: An Analysis of Urban and Rural Barcelona

Abstract

Travel behavior of the present generation of youths is being increasingly explored due to their relevance in shaping future accessibility needs and mobility habits. The present study offers an original perspective on this topic by identifying territorial disparities that emerge in youth mobility patterns in rural and urban areas. Unlike most previous research, we propose taking a global view on mobility by analyzing all trip purposes and transportation modes. This is conducted by analyzing a comprehensive mobility survey in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, which provides data on mobility engagement, trip purposes, modal split, travel times and territorial differences. In general, youngsters account for larger daily travel times than older adults, present a higher attachment to public transportation and walk less on a daily basis. These differences are enhanced in rural territories, where while older adults overcome accessibility issues with higher use of the private vehicle, youngsters are more likely to invest larger travel times on transit.

Walking for transportation in large Latin American cities: walking-only trips and total walking events and their sociodemographic correlates

“…When TWE were considered, middle-aged adults and especially younger adults significantly increased their walking times. The fact that this demographic group was the most affected by the underestimation of walking when only WOT are considered can again be largely explained by the fact that transit use is generally higher among this group (Delclòs-Alió & Miralles-Guasch, 2019 ). This suggests a clear potential of transit use as a form to engage in PA among working adults, especially considering that temporal constraints of increasingly longer workdays and longer commutes may limit the amount of time available to conduct other activities (Halonen et al, 2020 ).…”

“…For instance, the share of walking trips in U.S. cities over three million inhabitants is close to 14%. In contrast, the share of WOT can be close to 50% in European cities like Barcelona (Delclòs-Alió & Miralles-Guasch, 2019 ) and up to 60% in African cities like Dakar or Douala (UITP International Association of Public Transport, 2011 ). Clearly these findings indicate differences in the spatial structure of cities as well as socio-economic conditions of the population.…”

Strategies and prospects for territorial mobility of environmental graduates with higher education

“…The results of this study show that the trend towards building a vector of territorial mobility of young people is aimed at large urban agglomerations and metropolitan regions. This situation is typical not only for the south of Russia, the Urals, but also noted in a number of foreign studies [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”

Unique times, unequal mobilities: Daily mobility during the de‐escalation of the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…In comparison, movement is the highest among middle‐aged individuals, a group that Camarero and Oliva (2008) call the ‘support generation’, since they must combine their jobs with family responsibilities, such as caring for offspring or older family members. Young people have the lowest agency over their movement since much of their daily structure is determined by their family (Skelton, 2013), although they spend the largest amount of time on their daily trips (Delclòs‐Alió & Miralles‐Guasch, 2018; Delclòs‐Alió & Miralles‐Guasch, 2019).…”