EFFECTS OF ETHNIC NEIGHBORHOOD SOCIOECONOMIC-PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND INDIVIDUAL ATTRIBUTES ON IMMIGRANTS’ TRAVEL MODE CHOICE IN NORTH TEXAS

Abstract

Previous studies of immigrants’ travel behavior have been conducted mostly in California and the United States as a whole. Even though immigrant population and the share of immigrants have rapidly increased in Texas, only limited studies have been conducted for travel behavior of Hispanic immigrants. No study has examined the effects of attributes at multiple geographic levels on travel behavior.

This study intends to fill the void. It examines the effects of ethnic neighborhoods’ social, economic, and physical characteristics on residents’ travel mode choice, with a focus on immigrants in North Texas using the 2017 National Household Travel Survey, the 2017 American Community Survey, and other data from various sources, The results show that consistent with the current literature, immigrants are more likely to use public transit, walk and bicycle modes than non-immigrants. There exist ethnic neighborhoods where specific ethnic groups are concentrated. The results of the multilevel multinomial logit model further indicate that controlling for other individual, household, and neighborhood characteristics, the likelihood of immigrants using public transit, walk and bicycle modes, relative to private vehicles, decreases as the year staying in the U.S. increases. In contrast to the current literature, the effect of ethnic neighborhood is negatively associated with the mode choice of public transit, walk, and bicycle compared to the use of private vehicles. Implications of the findings are discussed.