Individual and contextual socioeconomic disadvantages and car driving between 16 and 24 years of age: a multilevel study in the Rhône Département (France)

This paper sets out to highlight and quantify the effect of individual and contextual deprivation on both access to a car driving licence and on actual driving of a car among young licence-holders in the Rhône Département (France).The three stages by which adolescents and very young adults become autonomous with regard to driving have been subjected to multilevel analyses, using a Household Travel Survey: (i) whether young persons participate in the early driving scheme at 16–17 years of age, (ii) whether young persons of 18–24 years of age hold a driving licence, and (iii) whether young licence-holders actually drive a car.At these three stages, social inequalities can be observed. This study highlights the considerable impact socioeconomic (individual but also contextual) factors and gender have on inequalities of access to car driving. Underprivileged groups suffer from disadvantages that accumulate at each stage (driving licence and car driving). The multilevel analysis of access to the car among young persons shows that considering the effects of the geographical context improves our understanding of travel inequalities.

► Individual and contextual social inequalities impact car access among the young.
► Multilevel modeling is used to investigate this hypothesis.
► Individual and contextual inequalities are observed in access to driving licence.
► Similar effects are found in actual car driving among licence-holders.
► Gender effect is significant in access to driving licence.