US immigrants and bicycling: Two-wheeled in Autopia Michael Smart n UCLA Department of Urban Planning, 3250 Public Affairs Building, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656, United States article info Available online 27 January 2010 Keywords: Immigration Bicycling Assimilation Mode choice modeling abstract Immigrants to the United States—particularly new immigrants—are more likely than the native born to travel by bicycle. This paper explores the extent to which the use of bicycles by immigrants can be explained by variables such as income, age, automobile availability, and neighborhood characteristics. Results from multinomial logistic mode choice models suggest that, even after controlling for these factors, a large and significant ‘‘immigrant effect’’ remains. The effect size is large for all immigrant groups by sending country, though some immigrant groups—such as those from East and Southeast Asia—are more likely than are others to use bicycles after controlling for other factors. Several avenues for further research are introduced, and policy implications are discussed. & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The ways in which people travel can reveal a lot about their opportunities and constraints, as well as their preferences and habits. Research has found that immigrants in the United States travel differently than native-born Americans, though these differences appear to diminish over time (Blumenberg and Shiki, 2007; Myers, 1997). Overwhelmingly, research has shown that immigrants tend to travel less by single-occupant vehicle (SOV) than do the native born, and more by carpool, transit, bicycle, and on foot—and that this is especially true for new immigrants. Differences in travel patterns between native-born and foreign- born Americans may be due to basic differences between these two groups, such as levels of income, automobile availability, age distribution, residential density, and other factors known to influence mode choice. However, these differences may also be the result of less well understood behavioral incentives and disincentives, differential preferences, locational attributes, or barriers to the use of certain modes. This paper tests the extent to which immigrants’ increased propensity to use bicycles can be explained by the former set of variables and speculates about the pathways through which the latter factors may influence bicycle usage. Using the US-based 2001 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), I analyze the higher propensity of immigrants to use ‘‘alternative’’ (non-SOV) modes of transportation, focusing speci- fically on the determinants of cycling. While cycling accounts for only a minute fraction of all trips made by Americans, immigrants are twice as likely to cycle (0.8% of all trips) as native-born Americans (0.4%). Particularly, low-income immigrants living in dense urban areas are much more likely to travel by bicycle than are all others. For example, immigrants earning less than $35,000 and living in areas with residential densities greater than 30,000 persons/mile 2 make roughly 3% of all trips by bicycle. While this is still only a small fraction of trips, it represents over 10 times as many as are made by similarly situated native-born Americans. Even among non-drivers, native-born Americans make only 1% of trips by bicycle, while immigrants make 3% of trips by bicycle. But what factors are responsible for this increased propensity to cycle? 2. Literature review Despite rapidly changing demographics due to immigration, research on the travel behavior of immigrants has lagged. Research has tended to focus on immigrants’ relatively high rates of public transportation usage and low automobile ownership rates, and has tended to rely on descriptive statistics (Myers, 1997; Rosenbloom, 1998; Purvis, 2003; Casas et al., 2004; Blumenberg and Evans, 2007; Blumenberg, 2009). These studies have largely found that immigrants own fewer cars than the native born, and travel more frequently by alternative modes of transportation such as carpools, public transportation, and non- motorized modes. While much of the research has been conducted using national datasets (typically, the Census), more recent scholarship has employed additional methodologies and datasets. For example, Lovejoy and Handy (2008) used focus groups to gain a richer understanding of Mexican immigrants’ travel experiences in California. They found that, while Mexican ARTICLE IN PRESS Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tranpol Transport Policy 0967-070X/$ - see front matter & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2010.01.002 n Tel.: + 1 917 292 9703; fax: + 1 310 206 5566. E-mail address: msmart@ucla.edu Transport Policy 17 (2010) 153–159