Millennials and Mobility: Understanding the Millennial Mindset and New Opportunities for Transit Providers (2013)

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1STUDY OVERVIEW

• Understand Millennials’ lifestyle and decision-making processes with an emphasis on mobility (daily travel). Identify specific factors affecting Millennials’ lifestyle decisions, including post-recession attitudes about the economy, heightened environmental awareness, a renewed interest in local communities, shifting social values amongst peers, new information technologies, urban attraction, and so on. • Identify how Millennials make their mobility decisions in a holistic way (e.g., considering all means of transportation: driving personal vehicles, public transit, other mobility options such biking, walking, car-sharing, etc.), taking into account the effect of major life decisions on mobility choices (e.g., where to live, where to work). Additionally, understand how these considerations may change as Millennials progress through life stages. • Identify key hurdles and benefits of various mobility options, including accessibility, convenience, time, community/belongingness, fluidity with other mobility options (e.g., multi-modal transit), etc. • Uncover potential opportunities for public transit providers to increase ridership—by improving messaging, information access, service offerings/accessibility, etc. 2 Study Objectives:

Phase 1 In-Depth Phone Interviews & Mobility Journaling Phase 2 Quantitative Online Survey  Completed: Behaviors, Needs and Attitudes Identified (December 2012) Completed: Engagement, Attitudes and Opportunities Quantified (April 2013) Study Design Overview: 3

? We conducted 30-minute phone interviews with 11 transit riders across a mix of the following 5 markets: • Boston • San Francisco • Austin • Boulder • Minneapolis Interviewees were: • Ages 18-34 • A mix of men and women • Engaged with one or more forms of public transportation at least once per week • A mix of car owners and non-car owners • A mix of urban and suburban dwellers • Of varying ethnicities • Of various education and household income levels 4 Phase 1 Methodology Overview

5 Study Design: n=1,000 total participants, distributed across 6 urban areas (Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and Washington DC), completed this ~17 minute online survey. Primary goals: • Explore attitudes toward mobility in general, including factors that play a role in mobility decision-making (e.g., social, financial, environmental, etc.) and the relationship between major life decisions (e.g., where to live and work) to specific transportation choices. • Understand current mobility behaviors across demographic/lifestyle groups, and identify common (and unique) pain points and benefits. • Uncover opportunities for promoting transit options, including new digital offerings, updated communications approaches, and “experience planning.” Using key insights gleaned from the Phase 1 in-depth phone interviews, we designed and executed a large-scale quantitative survey focused on quantifying Millennials’ mobility motivations, behaviors and related opportunities. Fielding was completed with n=1000 total with some tweaks to original screening criteria and quotas, which are summarized in the Appendix of this report. Final data was weighted to even out distribution of age and gender groups within and across each city surveyed, allowing for a more accurate analysis of differences by various sample groups. The final survey instrument and the survey data are available at http://www.trb.org/main/blurbs/169527.aspx Phase 2 Methodology Overview Icon Credit: Amar Chadgar from The Noun Project

Context for this document: This study, sampling and report was designed to:  Speak with Millennials living within or just outside of urban centers who are using public transit and other transportation options,  Understand Millennial mindsets around their living and transportation choices–and look at self-reported behaviors, observed trends and changes from their perspective or thinking,  Provide a summary of observations from collected data and suggest potential opportunity areas for public transit to meet emerging needs, fill gaps in present offerings, or inform future strategies for better serving or “speaking” with this group. 6

Context for this document: This study, sampling and report was NOT designed to: • Be nationally representative, • Survey Millennials and other generations/demographic groups to make statistical comparisons, • Make hard conclusions about what should or shouldn’t be done on behalf of this group. (That said, although this study was not designed to compare urban Millennials with other demographic groups/generations, it is possible that findings highlighted in this report would also be relevant to other demographic groups/generations.) 7

8 • Cost, convenience, and exercise are the top motivations for Millennials’ transportation choices and routines overall. And transportation choices are becoming increasingly multi-modal, primarily driven by cost and convenience/ time-saving. • While wanting to see more options that are affordable and convenient/accessible (nearby, shortest time, easy to use with other options) isn’t new, transportation providers may be able to better speak to and serve the needs of Millennials by: • Offering mobile and digital services that provide more detailed, accurate (real-time) and comprehensive trip-planning tools and information that reduce wait times, make it easy to use multiple transportation modes to reach a destination, and make services feel more reliable by better informing users with updates and options. • Helping people realize the benefits of (or take advantage of) the transportation options that offer some exercise (e.g., walking, biking, etc.) • Potentially packaging transportation subscriptions or purchase options that extend benefits beyond the individual and to the friends, families or others they live and share life with. Key Findings and Opportunities

9• Transportation choices are founded in routine—public transit is a critical part of many people’s routines; they follow known routes to-and-from work. Currently, some don’t feel public transit allows them to be spontaneous or flexible. • This suggests an opportunity to promote use of public transit as a go-to option when flexibility is needed or in various life contexts by positioning as an option in combination with other modes, improving information and digital tools that offer real-time suggestions or updates to allow for more spontaneity, or potentially by promoting more child/family-friendly features or services, etc. • The decision to drive is largely about avoiding hassles—people are still relying heavily on cars, and consider driving a go-to solution when they can’t chance being late, when the weather is bad, when they have multiple stops to make, when they have kids with them, and so on. • Public transit has an opportunity to address some perceived barriers—for example, by becoming more reliable or by providing real-time data/alerts about arrival times. • Millennial car owners are living downtown, are parents of kids under 18, and are using cars as one mode in the mix of options. • The transit industry may have an opportunity to better promote the use of public transit and other transportation options in conjunction with driving. Key Findings and Opportunities

10 • Millennials are motivated by environmental considerations—but in practice, being good to the environment is more of an added perk than a core consideration when choosing a transportation mode. • Core considerations are cost, reliability, convenience, and health/exercise benefits, but eco impact can be positioned as an “added value” in messaging to make users feel better about their transportation decisions. • Millennials are multi-tasking—constant Internet connectivity and the ability to multi- task is critical for Millennials, especially when commuting. Millennials are used to anytime, anywhere content access, and they appreciate the opportunity to keep working instead of waiting around while traveling. • Public transit providers should offer Wi-Fi/3G/4G connectivity and other tech- friendly amenities (e.g., charging stations, apps, etc.). • Local community is important—Millennials enjoy socializing (online) while traveling and making exciting local discoveries (i.e., hidden gems in their neighborhoods). • Millennials like the idea of transportation that facilitates these discoveries and that can even help personalize their routes based on other factors (e.g., what’s around, current mood, cost, etc.). Key Findings and Opportunities