Travel trends among young adults in Germany: increasing multimodality and declining car use for men

After decades of growth in motorization and car use, recent trends suggest stagnating travel demand in Germany. This paper focuses on travel trends of young German adults between 18 and 29. For decades these young adults represented one of the most car oriented age groups. Until the 1990s car use increased for all age groups in Germany, including young adults. Based on a range of primary and secondary data sources this paper finds that since the turn of the millennium car use among young adults has decreased. We identify two important underlying trends. First, an increasing share of young drivers also uses alternative modes of transport, thus indicating a rise in multimodal travel behavior. Second, gender differences in car travel have largely disappeared among young Germans—mainly because young men reduced car ownership and driving more than young women. These trends have led to an overall decrease of automobile travel by young adults and contributed to an increase of travel by other modes of transport. Decreasing automobile travel by young adults helps explain the stagnation of aggregate travel demand in Germany, since declining car use among young adults offsets increases in automobile travel of older individuals.