Different Travel Behavior between Self-Employed and Salaried Workers

Abstract

This study highlights the different travel behavior between self-employed (SE) and salaried (S) workers based on 8,174 individuals in the Albuquerque Metropolitan Planning Area, NM, that employed Tobit and multinomial logit models. This study finds that SE workers have greater autonomy across travel purposes and are less affected by rush hours. For example, SE workers tend to depart early (3:00 a.m.) or late morning after 9:00 a.m. (8% and 71%, respectively). However, S workers depart between rush hours (6:00–9:00 a.m.) (58%) for work. Second, the SE status plays a negative role in the travel time and distance. For instance, the SE workers show less time and distance for work (−2.999 and −1.878). Third, the SE workers have a positive predisposition toward carpools. For example, they show positive preferences for household and interhousehold carpools (0.150 and 0.181, respectively). This study could contribute to the theoretical and practical implications for transportation planners and policymakers to develop better transportation policies and planning by highlighting the specific coefficient values of different travel times, distances, modes, and purposes between SE and S workers.