Changing travel behavior of Asian immigrants in the U.S.

Travel of Asian immigrants in the U.S. has rarely been investigated, although their transportation assimilation process could be different from other immigrant groups. This research uses the 2001 and 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data to examine how Asian immigrant travel behavior changes over time. Based on cohort analysis and regression analysis, two types of temporal changes are analyzed: The first type of change occurs as immigrants stay in the U.S. for several years, and the second type of change happens in the initial status between the more recent arrivals and those who arrived earlier. Along the first temporal dimension, this research finds travel differences between recent Asian immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for fewer than four years and native-born Asian Americans, but the differences are inconsistent between 2001 and 2009. Meanwhile, established Asian immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for more than four years assimilate into the automobile culture with similar travel patterns as native-born Asian Americans. Along the second temporal dimension, recent immigrants in 2009 do not have greater transportation mobility than recent immigrants in 2001: travel differences between recent immigrants and native-born Asians were smaller in 2001 than in 2009. The results indicate that Asian immigrant travel behavior differs from that of other immigrant groups and shed light on how to improve transportation services for a diverse and multicultural population.