Citation

Tardiff TJ. Transp. Res. Rec. 1975; 534: 1-9.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1975, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Socioeconomic status is often theorized to be associated with variables measuring transportation behavior, and, income is the most frequently used measure of socioeconomic status in most transportation studies. However, sociologists have long hypothesized that other measures of socioeconomic status, e.g., education or occupation, are more appropriate describers of individuals or households in certain situations. The purpose of this paper is to decide on empirical grounds whether income is more appropriate than some of the other indicators of socioeconomic status in transportation modeling contexts. Data was from a stratified probability sample of 223 households in the Santa Monica-west Los Angeles, California, area. Income of the household, education of the respondent, and occupations of the household head and the respondent were the indicators of socioeconomic status. Classes of variables measuring transportation behavior (dependent variables) were trip frequencies and indicators of modal selection. Dependent variables were used in models that included the indicators of socioeconomic status as independent variables and in simple two-variable relationships involving these indicators. Regression analysis, correlation analysis, logic analysis, and simple tests of the significance of differences in means showed that at least one of the other indicators was more strongly associated with the dependent variables in almost all cases.