How Neighborhood Crime, Built Environment, Life Events, and Attitudes Influence Vehicle Acquisitions: A Retrospective Analysis of Purchase, Body Type, and Vintage Decisions

How Neighborhood Crime, Built Environment, Life Events, and Attitudes Influence Vehicle Acquisitions: A Retrospective Analysis of Purchase, Body Type, and Vintage Decisions | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article How Neighborhood Crime, Built Environment, Life Events, and Attitudes Influence Vehicle Acquisitions: A Retrospective Analysis of Purchase, Body Type, and Vintage Decisions Masoud ArfaeiYazdiPour, Ali Mohammadi, Sina Asgharpour, Nooshin Javidi, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7843019/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Neighborhood crime exposure is an underexplored yet critical factor in shaping household vehicle decisions. While prior research has acknowledged the influence of crime and perceived safety on various dimensions of travel behavior, no studies to date have directly examined how crime affects vehicle ownership and type choice. This study incorporates crime indicators into a longitudinal, life course–oriented framework. Drawing on a 10-year retrospective survey in Chicago, the analysis links household vehicle purchases to socio-demographics, life events, housing changes, personal attitudes, built environment characteristics, and neighborhood crime data. A nested logit model is employed to jointly capture both the decision to purchase a vehicle and the subsequent choice of vehicle body type and vintage. Results reveal that exposure to crime, particularly violent and property crimes, increases the likelihood of vehicle purchase and shifts preferences toward used vehicles. In addition, life events such as marriage, childbirth, job changes, and residential moves significantly influence both purchase and type decisions, while built environment factors such as residential density and transit access reduce the probability of vehicle acquisition. This study advances the literature by integrating personal, spatial, psychological, and safety-related factors in a unified modeling framework. Findings highlight the importance of integrating neighborhood safety with transportation and land-use policies to effectively reduce car dependency. The results also suggest that life transitions offer critical opportunities for mobility interventions and sustainable vehicle choice programs. Vehicle Purchase Neighborhood Crime Built Environment Life Events Body Type Vintage Retrospective Longitudinal Dataset Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7843019","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":529566732,"identity":"fb430487-18ec-4a7b-9e3b-c347dc4e4573","order_by":0,"name":"Masoud ArfaeiYazdiPour","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAn0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJCCDwwVDDwghgSxOhhnMJwhWQtjG4RFnBbd9rMPG37OOyzD38B88DYPMVrMzqQbNvZuO8wjcYAt2Zo4LQfS2B/wArUYMPCYSROn5fwzxsa/c0Ba+L8RqeVGGmMzbwPYFjZitTxjbJY5ls4jcZjN2HIOcQ5LY2x8U2Ntz9/e/PDGG2K0IAAzacpHwSgYBaNgFOADAF+BLTfqgKwwAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Illinois at Chicago","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Masoud","middleName":"","lastName":"ArfaeiYazdiPour","suffix":""},{"id":529566733,"identity":"f159ca3e-43d4-49b2-9520-0f91d62d9fd9","order_by":1,"name":"Ali Mohammadi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Illinois at Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ali","middleName":"","lastName":"Mohammadi","suffix":""},{"id":529566734,"identity":"6a843151-0456-44a4-b199-a0784038bb90","order_by":2,"name":"Sina Asgharpour","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Illinois at Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sina","middleName":"","lastName":"Asgharpour","suffix":""},{"id":529566735,"identity":"d5944f93-ac77-4a7d-ae26-bfe02f4ec969","order_by":3,"name":"Nooshin Javidi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Illinois at Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nooshin","middleName":"","lastName":"Javidi","suffix":""},{"id":529566736,"identity":"c70c2921-a1ba-4dcc-adab-6402fdb28be0","order_by":4,"name":"Abolfazl (Kouros) Mohammadian","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Illinois at Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Abolfazl","middleName":"(Kouros)","lastName":"Mohammadian","suffix":""},{"id":529566737,"identity":"2f691013-6acf-4167-91ec-213974275ac1","order_by":5,"name":"Nazmul Arefin Khan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Argonne National Laboratory","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nazmul","middleName":"Arefin","lastName":"Khan","suffix":""},{"id":529566738,"identity":"b108e1b5-89a7-4227-ac60-cba04cf322d1","order_by":6,"name":"Yantao Huang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Argonne National Laboratory","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yantao","middleName":"","lastName":"Huang","suffix":""},{"id":529566740,"identity":"f1d235cd-8165-461d-b722-3cdd4b2e97d6","order_by":7,"name":"Joshua A. 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