With greater understanding of preferred and frequently used modes of transportation, urban planners can design and promote efficient, equitable, and sustainable living environments. Few studies have examined the transportation needs immigrants who have recently arrived in the United States. Most of our limited understanding of this subset of the population is based on research obtained from immigrants who have resided in the United States for extended periods of time. Moreover, little is known about how post-immigration travel behaviors are affected by pre-immigration travel behaviors. This study examines how pre-immigration travel behaviors of Latinx immigrants affect their post-immigration travel behaviors within one year of their arrival to Miami-Dade County, Florida. The findings of this study align with previous research suggesting that, among this immigrant group, multiple modes of transportation are used-with variations by sex, income, and country of origin. Unlike previous studies, however, our results reveal a relatively high prevalence of driving, particularly among men, indicating the uniqueness of Latinx travel behavior in Miami-Dade County. An important and novel study finding is that transportation behaviors of immigrants soon after arrival are highly influenced by transportation behaviors in their country of origin. This knowledge can potentially be highly relevant to transportation planners in the United States, as it facilitates the adoption of early behavioral interventions to address immigrants' transportation needs.
Keywords: Florida; Latinx; Recent Immigrants; Transportation Mode.