Travel by Purpose per Household | The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport

| David Levinson
he evidence now shows people visit friends less. While we don't know for sure that the internet prompted this, time online continues to rise, especially mobile. Time spent socializing off-line has dropped about 8% in less than a decade, from over 40 minutes per day in 2003 to 37 minutes in 2011 according to the American Time Use Survey. As shown in Figure 3.7, recession impacted or not, the National Household Travel Survey finds social and recreational travel has dropped markedly in absolute terms from 1990. While lack of work obviously crimps work travel, the lack of work in principle frees up time for non-work travel, particularly things like visiting friends. From Levinson and Krizek (2015) The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport. http://davidlevinson.org/the-end-of-traffic-and-the-future-of-transport/ Figure 3.7 Source: Table 5: Summary of Travel Trends, 2009 National Household Travel Survey)⁠ http://nhts.ornl.gov/2009/pub/stt.pdf.
The evidence now shows people visit friends less. While we don’t know for sure that the internet prompted this, time online continues to rise, especially mobile. Time spent socializing off-line has dropped about 8% in less than a decade, from over 40 minutes per day in 2003 to 37 minutes in 2011 according to the American Time Use Survey. As shown in Figure 3.7, recession impacted or not, the National Household Travel Survey finds social and recreational travel has dropped markedly in absolute terms from 1990. While lack of work obviously crimps work travel, the lack of work in principle frees up time for non-work travel, particularly things like visiting friends.

From Levinson and Krizek (2015) The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport.

Figure 3.7 Source: Table 5: Summary of Travel Trends, 2009 National Household Travel Survey.