The Evolution of Travel Demand, Time Use, and Consumer Expenditures: Insights from National Surveys

Abstract: Over the past few decades, the transportation landscape has been influenced by various factors, including climate change, economic and societal inequities, urban congestion, demographic shifts, migration patterns, and rapid technological advances. These forces have shaped how Americans travel, allocate time and money to different activities and resources, and navigate their day-to-day lives. To better understand the evolving transportation landscape and changing mobility patterns, this study leverages data from three key national surveys: the American Community Survey (ACS), the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), and the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE). Complemented by other transportation data sources and statistics, the analysis provides a comprehensive overview of mobility trends, focusing on travel metrics such as trip frequency, mode usage, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), commuting patterns, work arrangements, time use across various trip purposes, and household expenditures on transportation. The findings reveal declines in overall trip-making, particularly for commuting and shopping trips, along with a significant increase in telework – which is a pre-COVID trend amplified by the pandemic. While travel patterns have begun to stabilize in the post-pandemic period, some behavioral shifts remain. Overall trip-making has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and the fraction of individuals reporting zero trips remains considerably higher than in the pre-COVID period. Social and recreational travel is showing signs of recovery, but public transportation use remains subdued, and non-motorized modes like walking and biking have also declined. On the other hand, micromobility options, such as e-bikes and e-scooters, are gaining popularity, and telework continues to influence travel behavior. These findings have important implications for transportation planning in a “new normal” as the spatio-temporal patterns of travel are considerably different in the post-COVID era. Future infrastructure investments will need to accommodate more flexible and diverse travel patterns, moving beyond a commuting-centric operational model. Transportation demand forecasting models that drive policy decisions and investments must be updated using contemporary data that reflect the latest behaviors, choices, and preferences so that future mobility solutions and technologies meet the evolving needs of residents and businesses. This presentation will offer a comprehensive overview of two decades of trends in time use, travel, and consumer expenditures together with a discussion of the implications of these trends for policy planning and modeling in the future.