New!  In the News

Young people have delayed getting licensed to drive, and for the first time in history more young women are licensed than young men. Read complete article from the Seattle Times. There has also been a sharp decline in vehicle trips and the number of miles traveled by vehicle for 16- to 29-year old males.  There may be economic reasons for the shift away from driving in younger age cohorts, McGuckin's research indicates. But she also speculates that electronic communications may have something to do with it.

The baby boomers have contributed to the surge in travel over the last four decades, but there are signs boomers may already be slowing down. The rate of growth in travel in the U.S. began slowing in 2006. Actual miles traveled dropped sharply during the 2008 recession and now appear to have leveled off. But boomers could defy expectations again by remaining more mobile into their retirement years than past generations, according to Nancy McGuckin, travel behavior analyst. One big question is how will they continue being mobile when they can no longer drive? Read article here

Travel Behavior and the Environment

• Sustainable Community Performance Measures     
• Green Behavior - The Carbon Impact of Daily Travel 
• The Carbon Footprint of Daily Travel - Article   
• Sustainable Mobility - New Findings from the NHTS   
• New Perspectives on Travel Demand 

Long Distance Travel

• Intercity Travel Market Analysis 
• Long Distance Travel Behavior - Challenges and Opportunities 
• Long Distance Travel in the US   
• Driving to Distractions: Long Distance Leisure Travel  
• Personal Travel - The Long and Short of It     

Demographics and Travel

• Impact of Baby Boomers on U.S. Travel, 1969-2009  
• Summary of Travel Trends 1969-2009   
• Mode Equity - Current Findings 
• Demographics Matter  
• Age, Race, and Sex in Travel Behavior  
• Work, Automobility, and Commuting: Differences by Race and Ethnic Backgrounds  
• Does Race and Ethnicity Make a Difference in Travel Behavior?  
• Mobility in American Life 

Active Travel

• Active Transportation Data for Decision Making 
• Biking in the US 
• Walking and Biking in California 
• Walking and Biking in California Summary of Findings 
• Walking is not Dead  

Travel by Older Americans

• Trends in Older American's Travel 
• Driving Miss Daisy: Women as Passengers  
• Working Retirement - An Update 
• Aging Cars, Aging Drivers ITE Journal 

Peak Travel and the Journey to Work

• Peak Travel in America 
• Understanding Trip Chaining - The 'Starbuck's Effect'  
• See the Video of "The Starbucks Effect" as seen on ABC's Good Morning America. 
• A Walk Through Time - Changes in the Landscape of US Commuting 
• Differences in Trip Chaining Behavior between Men and Women 

Employment Data and Commercial Travel

• Employment Data: Uses, Sources, and Challenges  
• Intermodal Truck Traffic: Description and Results of a Survey in Chicago  
• Commercial Vehicle Surveys -- Commodities or Trips  

Survey Methods and Statistics

• Trips, Chains and Tours - An Operational Definition  
• The Challenge of Surveying Hard-to-Reach Populations  
• Hang-ups, Call-backs, and Incompletes: Non-Response in Telephone Surveys  
• Are Households with Interrupted Telephone Service Like Those with No Telephone Service?  
• Exploring the Full continuum of Travel: Data Fusion by Recursive Partitioning Regression  
• A Treatise on Trip Generation 

What is Travel Behavior?

Travel behavior is the way people move in the public realm by all means of travel and for all purposes. Some of the activities people want to engage in are separated by space, which requires people to travel. The choices they make in order to travel are based on options, constraints, habits, and opportunities. For instance, how people travel to work (by car, bus, subway, or walk), the time they leave, and the duration and type of stops they make on the way, are important aspects of travel behavior.

Other topics include understanding travel by special population groups such as new immigrants and the elderly, how household location and economics influence travel, vehicle ownership and use, and many, many more topics. Recently, she completed an important Summary of Travel Trends, covering changes in American travel behavior since 1969: http://nhts.ornl.gov/2009/pub/stt.pdf

New! See Topic Briefs for the latest research and briefs on current topics of interest.

About Ms. McGuckin:

Nancy McGuckin is an independent consultant and nationally known expert in the interpretation and forecasting of travel behavior. She is best known for her ability to make meaningful analysis from complex data sources and her practical interpretation of research. She recently completed forecasts of travel by older Americans, migration and immigration patterns and trends, and forecasts of non-work travel for the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.   

In her early career, she worked for Barton-Aschman/Parson’s Transportation Group developing travel and ridership forecasts for major investment studies, such as high speed rail systems in  Shanghai, San Juan, and Bangkok. She specializes in social and demographic indicators of travel demand, and integrates data from safety, health, economic, energy, time-use, and other pertinent sources to develop the context for planning and policy initiatives. 

Recently she has turned her focus to research related to current policy concerns, such as sustainability, equity, and livable communities. She is developing data sources for performance measures and communication tools to encourage changes in daily travel that can reduce VMT and greenhouse gas emissions. For example:

A Bicycle Built for Two: Working Together to Reduce The Carbon Impact of Daily Travel - Click link below for a representational graphic.

Graphic2 - Reducing GHG emissions--bicycle graphic.pdf