Sustainable Mobility: Highly Educated People Have an Advantage
University graduates are more likely to live in large cities and, within those cities, in central neighborhoods with good infrastructure. As a result, their daily travel distances are on average 17 percent shorter than those of people with a lower level of education. This means they have more time for environmentally friendly, but slower, travel modes. These are the findings of a study by the WZB Berlin Social Science Center based on daily transport data.
Previous studies have often attributed the environmentally friendly mobility behavior of university graduates to a higher level of environmental awareness – in addition to better financial opportunities. The WZB study now shows for the first time that spatial advantages, such a central residential locations, also have a decisive influence.
The study analyzed data from 2002 and 2017. During this period, the trend towards living in large cities has increased among individuals with higher levels of formal education. In 2017, people with a university degree were three times more likely to live in large cities than people with lower levels of education (Figure 1).
Further analysis of cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants shows that people with a university degree live 1.37 kilometers closer to the city center compared to people without A-levels (Figure 2). As a result, their daily travel distances are between 11 and 20 percent shorter than those of people with lower levels of formal education. This enables them to complete everyday journeys, such as errands or leisure activities, in less time on foot, by bike or by public transport, making them less dependent on a car. The study shows no difference in commuting distance. But even that could change: The authors suspect that the increase in working from home could reduce commuting, especially for people with higher levels of education.
“Our results show that sustainable mobility is often less a conscious choice than simply having privileged access to central urban locations based on where you live,” explains WZB researcher Sarah George. Her colleague Katja Salomo points out: “We see different spheres of experience. Privileged people can make sustainable mobility decisions more easily with less time costs, but less privileged people cannot. This makes it more difficult to achieve the social consensus that is needed for a sustainable transition in the transport sector.”
The study is based on data on everyday mobility and includes 16,419 journeys by 4,168 people in 2002 and 102,774 journeys by 26,036 people in 2017. The data is representative of German residents in large cities aged between 18 and 59.