Long-term and Mid-term Mobility Decisions During the Life Course: Findings from a Retrospective Survey

Long-term and mid-term mobility of people involves decisions about spatial locations as well as decisions about the ownership of mobility tools. These two aspects of mobility behaviour are closely connected to one another. A longitudinal perspective on these relationships is available from people¿s life courses, which link different dimensions of life together. Besides the personal and familial history, locations of residence, education and employment as well as the ownership of cars and different public transport season tickets can be taken into account. In order to study the dynamics of long-term and mid-term mobility decisions, a retrospective survey covering the 20-year period from 1985 to 2004 was carried out at the beginning of 2005 in Switzerland. The book at hand concentrates on the analysis of the long-term and mid-term mobility decisions during the life course and over time. The main focus lies on the dynamics of mobility tool ownership over the last 20 years, at the same time looking at the relationships with residential choices as well as with locations of education and employment. Besides the decisions, durations, changes and delays between changes are examined.