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A Better Understanding of Shopping Travel in the United States
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2023-11-20
[PDF-1.47 MB]
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Edition:Final Report 08/15/2021 to 11/20/2023
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Abstract:How we shop in the US is changing, with an increasing reliance on online shopping and delivery services. The transportation and environmental implications of this shift are unknown—these services could ultimately improve outcomes through batching of trips to multiple residences, or they could worsen transport outcomes by replacing short trips to the store with much longer trips to central warehouses, utilizing heavier vehicles. The convenience of online shopping may also lead to additional shopping events relative to the disutility of traveling to a store. A key piece of information in understanding the implications of the shift to online shopping is understanding what the transport impacts of the status quo of in-person shopping are. Most existing studies either add up the total mileage of trips to shopping destinations, or assume each shopping trip generates a round-trip from home. However, a significant fraction of shopping occurs on the way to or from other destinations. This research quantifies how much marginal vehicle mileage these trips induce, by comparing actual travel days with hypothetical travel days with shopping trips removed. We find that the marginal vehicle mileage generated by shopping trips is, coincidentally, comparable to mileage calculated by measuring only trips to shopping locations and approximately half the distance calculated by assuming round trips from home to each shopping location.
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