Abstract
Understanding travel and residential mobility behavior is crucial for formulating urban policies and planning urban infrastructure. These decisions shape urban structure, and may contribute to problems such as congestion, air pollution, urban decline, and urban sprawl. The first part of the dissertation examines differences in commuting patterns between men and women, as a function of differences in household composition and household division of labor. I find that single men and single women have similar travel patterns, but the travel patterns of men and women with families differ from each other. Gender differences are particularly important in making a side trip, but less so in mode choice and trip scheduling. They arise mainly from the differential effects of household composition on men and women. In particular, having children adds side trips to mothers, but not to fathers. Men are less likely to make a side trip when there is another adult in the household, especially when this adult does not work. But women do not seem to have a similar advantage. Women tend to ride with family when there is another adult in the household. The second part of the dissertation examines residential mobility, advancing the literature by: (1) using hazard models within a competing risks framework to model different types of moves; (2) using the individual as a unit of analysis; (3) accounting for undeserved heterogeneity; and (4) testing for effects of accessibility and neighborhood characteristics. The results establish important differences in the determinants of different types of moves. For example, any change in household income stimulates own-to-own, rent-to-own, and rent-to-rent moves; but only a decrease in income stimulates an own-to-rent move. Changes in household size are unimportant in rent-to-own moves, but they stimulate own-to-own and rent-to-rent moves. Only a decrease in household size stimulates own-to-rent moves. Wealthier households are more likely to move from owner-to-owner and renter-to-owner. Larger households are less likely to make rent-to-rent moves. Generally, renters are more likely to move. Age is important in determining rent-to-own moves: mobility initially increases until age 41, and then decreases. Job changes stimulate own-to-own and own-to-rent moves.