Explaining Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Travel for Food Shopping: The Roles of Income, Household Structure, and Metropolitan Residential Segregation in the United States

Abstract

Racial and ethnic minorities disproportionately reside in neighborhoods with low access to food. However, scholars have little evidence about whether this results in a disadvantage in travel for food shopping by race and ethnicity. This study overcomes previous limitations by using data and a method that allows for directly measuring travel to food stores by race and ethnicity at the individual level of data. The purpose is to determine whether racial and ethnic minorities experience longer travel times to food stores than White shoppers, and to evaluate factors that might contribute to differences by race and ethnicity. This study uses a nationally representative sample of data from the American Time Use Survey during the Years 2005–2019 and multilevel modeling regression that includes both individual and metropolitan-level data to estimate travel time spent on food shopping by race and ethnicity in US metropolitan areas, while controlling for other variables known to influence travel behavior. The findings indicate that Black, Asian, and Hispanic travelers experienced longer travel durations than White shoppers, with Black travelers spending 27% more travel time when shopping for food than White travelers. The disadvantage cannot be explained by differences in income or household structure, but the role of residential segregation remains unclear. This research reveals a need for policy interventions to address an unfair burden on racial and ethnic minorities that may contribute to diet-related diseases while also siphoning time from a limited daily schedule.