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Record W7115810605

EXPANDING THE CONTINUUM OF TRAVEL ASSIMILATION: UNCOVERING NEW MEASURES AND SOCIAL PRACTICE THEORY INSIGHTS

2025· dissertation· en· W7115810605 on OpenAlexaboutno aff

Bibliographic record

VenueMacSphere (McMaster University) · 2025
Typedissertation
Languageen
FieldSocial Sciences
TopicUrban Transport and Accessibility
Canadian institutionsnot available
Fundersnot available
KeywordsConceptualizationImmigrationTravel behaviorPublic transportThematic analysisPhenomenonSalientTransportation planning
DOInot available

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Immigrant transportation patterns are observed to change over time. Their initial travel patterns are typically more sustainable than the native-born population; engaging in higher rates of walking, biking, and public transit. However, immigrant travel patterns begin to mimic that of their native-born counterparts over time. This phenomenon is called travel assimilation. The study contains two chapters of research which contribute to the conceptualization of travel assimilation and factors that may cause this process to occur. Semi-structured interviews were conducted (n=11) with immigrants who were past participants of Bike Host, a cycling mentorship program in Toronto, facilitated by CultureLink, a settlement organization. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the interview data through NVivo. The results in the first chapter highlight four new findings. First, travel assimilation exists on a continuum; it is not a binary experience as immigrants often do not fully transition towards auto-centric lifestyles, nor do they stay completely car-free either. Second, travel assimilation is a non-linear process, as transportation patterns can shift between sustainable and auto-centric ones. Third, travel assimilation is not always experienced the same in a single household. Fourth, implementing multiple variables helps best measure travel assimilation. The second chapter used a theoretical framework of Social Practice Theory (SPT) to understand why transportation patterns of immigrants are evolving, or not. Four interconnected factors were found to shape travel assimilation. First, the built environment directly impacts immigrants’ access to different forms of transportation. Second, changes in income impact which modes of transportation are available to newcomers. Third, the presence of children introduces mobility of care trips, especially for mothers, impacting travel mode. Finally, community programs like Bike Host can increase the longevity of sustainable transport. Results from both chapters can help inform future research and policies, focused on immigrant communities in increasing the use of sustainable transport.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.014
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.021
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Qualitative · Consensus signal: Qualitative
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.014
Threshold uncertainty score0.072

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0140.021
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0010.001
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0010.001
Bibliometrics0.0060.006
Science and technology studies0.0030.016
Scholarly communication0.0080.010
Open science0.0020.008
Research integrity0.0010.003
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0040.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.025
GPT teacher head0.265
Teacher spread0.240 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designQualitative
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations0
Published2025
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

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