“Would it be weird to live here without a car?”: using Reddit to understand car-free lifestyle decisions
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Iacobucci, Evan.
“Would it be weird to live here without a car?”: using Reddit to understand car-free lifestyle decisions. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-gzrk-fz07Export
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Title“Would it be weird to live here without a car?”: using Reddit to understand car-free lifestyle decisions
Date Created2021
Other Date2021-10 (degree)
Extent1 online resource (xi, 146 pages) : illustrations
DescriptionCar use is associated with negative social, economic, and environmental externalities. Encouraging people to adopt a car-free lifestyle is one way to address these harms, since car ownership is a major predictor of driving. Nevertheless, few people in the US voluntarily live without a car. In this dissertation, I seek 1) to understand why people decide to live car-free, and 2) to investigate the potential that more people could adopt car-free lifestyles. I use threads scraped from Reddit, an online social media platform, to address these issues, employing content analysis to examine data from seven US cities in which Reddit commenters discuss car ownership decisions.
I find that the car-free are multimodal, employ contingency plans, rely on ridehailing and carsharing services to fill mobility gaps, and readily get used to car-free living. Among car owners, I find that while some need cars, others keep them for convenience. Costs are a primary motivator in ownership decisions, especially parking costs. Awareness of these costs motivates shedding of cars, while lowered costs, e.g., via free parking, encourage ownership. Accessible neighborhoods facilitate car-free life, with commenters describing walking and using transit to access common destinations. Changes in car ownership are catalyzed in two ways: 1) Key life events (e.g., moving) cause changes in travel needs or available choices, or 2) People reevaluate their available options and make new choices, unspurred by a key event.
I conclude that there are groups, like those who keep cars for convenience, or those whose needs could be met by alternative modes, that display high potential to become car-free. Changes in cost structure and policy may be leveraged to bring these changes about.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses
LanguageEnglish
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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