Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Unpacking Preference: How Previous Experience Affects Auto Ownership, Rachel R. Weinberger, Frank Goetzke

Rachel R Weinberger

As environmental concerns mount alongside increasing auto dependence, research has been devoted to understanding the number of automobiles households own. The 2000 US census public use micro sample is used to demonstrate the importance of preference formation in auto ownership by studying auto ownership among recent movers. Using a multinomial probit model, the paper demonstrates that residents in the US transit cities who moved from major metropolitan areas are more likely to own fewer vehicles than counterparts who moved from smaller metropolitan areas and non-metropolitan areas. It is concluded that these results are due to learned preferences for levels of …