Long-term and mid-term mobility decisions during the life course: Experiences with a retrospective survey

Abstract

Long-term and mid-term mobility of people involves on the one hand decisions about their residential locations and the corresponding moves. At the same time, the places of education and employment play an important role. On the other hand the ownership of mobility tools, such as cars and different public transport season tickets, is a complementary element in this process, which also binds substantial resources. These two aspects of mobility behaviour are closely connected to one another. A longitudinal perspective on these relationships is available from people's life courses, which link different dimensions of life together. Besides the personal and familial history, locations of residence, education and employment as well as the ownership of mobility tools can be taken into account. These life course dimensions are usually not independent from one another. Events in one area are frequently connected to changes in other areas. At the same time, this longitudinal approach provides the possibility to observe developments over time. In order to study the dynamics of long-term and mid-term mobility decisions, a longitudinal survey covering the 20-year period from 1985 to 2004 was carried out at the beginning of 2005 in a stratified sample of municipalities in the Zurich region, Switzerland. The paper shows that there exists a strong interrelation between the two examined aspects of long-term and mid-term mobility. The residential mobility is influenced by the ownership of the different mobility tools, and vice versa. Thereby the mobility tool ownership remains comparably stable over longer periods of time. Concerning the ownership of the various mobility tools, the analyses indicate that car ownership and public transport season ticket ownership substitute one another. During the life course car ownership is highest among those who are 35 to 55 years old today. At the same time, men have noticeably more frequently a car at their disposal than women of the same age. Concerning the ownership of national and regional season tickets, the opposite trend is visible.

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