Women,travel and the idea of 'sustainable transport'

Women form an increasingly large proportion of both the populations of the US and of European countries. This, together with the changing role of women in modern society, has important potential implications for transport policy. Looked at from the micro level, women have different travel patterns from men, reflecting factors such as lower labour force participation, lower income levels, their traditional role in the family, the decision-making structure within households, the current age distribution and physical vulnerability. The situation is changing and this will have implications on transport demands. The female population is also, on average, getting older. Traditional travel modelling spends much time on modal attributes, such as speed and cost, but for many women this may not be the central issue. Security is often important. Standard traffic models only implicitly allow for gender (e.g. travel time is valued different from work and non-work trips). With the increased complexity of life styles and the growth in multi-purpose trips by women, the conventional approach to travel time valuation may need to be rethought. This paper looks at some of the emerging issues regarding women and travel and puts them in the context of the emerging ideas concerning sustainable transport.     

The impact of married women's employment on household travel patterns: A Swedish example

As the number of married women working outside the home continues to grow, questions arise as to the impact of a wife's employment on household travel patterns. In this paper we examine the effects of a wife's employment status on her own travel activity pattern and on that of her husband. Using data from the Uppsala Household Travel Survey, in which sample-household members kept detailed travel diaries for 35 days, we first compare the travel patterns of married women employed full time with those of married women employed part time and married women not working outside the home. We then compare the travel patterns of the three corresponding groups of husbands. Measures of travel activity patterns that were used include indices of overall travel frequency for different purposes, amount of time spent and distances travelled for different purposes, indices of the level of variety in the individual's destination choice set, and measures of mode use. The results show that women employed full-time do reduce their participation in some non-work activities although their distances travelled to activity sites are not shorter than those travelled by the other women.Few significant intergroup differences distinguish the travel activity patterns of the three groups of men. The evidence suggests that a woman's full-time employment does bring significant changes to her own travel pattern but has little impact on that of her husband. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy implications and a review of several Swedish programs that could eventually result in greater similarity in the travel activity patterns of men and women.     

Comments on 'The limitations of transport policy'

This paper has been written as a response to the paper of Metz (2002) on 'The limitations of transport policy'. It is argued that the issues involved are more complex than Metz implies, and that many current travel patterns stem from decisions made previously about lifestyles, as a result of changing patterns of work, the availability of home-computing facilities, and increasing aspirations and income. Neither the models nor the data sources available to transport planners reflect these trends, and transport policy tends to be simplistic. Many of the transport policy issues stem from increasing car dependency, with its implications, particularly for the elderly and for the young. It is argued that transport policy has not been very effective in the past, and it is likely to be even less so in the future. Hence, there is a need to redefine the role of the transport planner and recognize the limitations of transport policy.     

Middle‐class Travel Patterns,Predispositions and Attitudes,and Present‐day Transport Policy in Bangkok,Thailand

Abstract

Middle‐class expansion and new consumption patterns have increasingly become an important focus of studies of the development and change in newly industrialized and middle‐income‐developing East and South East Asian countries. However, there is still a dearth of studies in the literature particularly focusing on middle‐class travel patterns, predispositions and transport policy preferences. Nor have the implications of these factors on current transport and land development policy been examined. The present exploratory study addresses this gap by examining three cases in Bangkok, Thailand, which in recent decades witnessed dramatic middle‐class expansion, an increase in private motor vehicle population, and spatial diffusion of middle‐class residences into lower‐density zones in the suburbs. By mainly employing a survey method of data‐gathering and quantitative research analysis, the paper discusses the following findings: (1) that middle‐class travel behaviour is characterized by a high dependence on private motor vehicle travel and ‘inward commuting’; (2) that middle‐class preferences for transport mode and attitudes about remedial policy options are generally protective of their members’ car‐dependence and ownership; and (3) that present policy measures of the Thai government on Bangkok transport perfectly fit and support exclusively middle‐ and upper‐class predispositions and stakes in mobility. These findings in a developing country city basically follow a similar profile to be found in middle‐class‐dominant transport patterns and urban form in a number of North American cities. This paper further argues that in a developing country city such as Bangkok, where marked social differentiation and the combined population of poor and low‐income classes still comprise almost half of the urban social landscape despite an expanding middle‐class, an adequate and good public transport system that also meets the former’s need for efficient mobility is an imperative.     

Gauging interventions for sustainable travel: A comparative study of travel attitudes in Berlin and London

So-called ‘soft’ policy instruments that respond to the psychological aspects of travel are regularly acknowledged as necessary complements to ‘hard’ infrastructure investments to effectively promote sustainable travel in cities. While studies investigating subjective orientations among travellers have proliferated, open questions remain including the role of recent technological advances, the expansion of alternative mobility services, locally specific mobility cultures and residential selection. This paper presents the methods, results and policy implications of a comparative study aiming to understand mobility attitudes and behaviours in the wider metropolitan regions of Berlin and London. We specifically considered information and communication technology (ICT), new types of mobility services such as car sharing, electric cars and residential preferences. In each region, we identified six comparable segments with distinct attitudinal profiles, socio-demographic properties and behavioural patterns. Geocoding of the home address of respondents further revealed varying contextual opportunities and constraints that are likely to influence travel attitudes. We find that there is significant potential for uptake of sustainable travel practices in both metropolitan regions, if policy interventions are designed and targeted in accordance with group-specific needs and preferences and respond to local conditions of mobility culture. We identify such interventions for each segment and region and conclude that comparative assessment of attitudinal, alongside geographical, characteristics of metropolitan travellers can provide better strategic input for realistic scenario-building and ex-ante assessment of sustainable transport policy.     

Travel,transport and energy implications of university-related student travel: A case study approach

This study highlighted significant cultural differences and complexity in travel behaviour associated with travel to university across the UK and Ireland. This paper examines university travel behaviours and the implications for emissions, across the 2012–2013 academic year, based on responses from 1049 students across 17 universities in Ireland and the UK. Surveys were analysed to examine the trips of students both during term time and when accessing the universities each year. The data analysis in this paper examines three aspects of the transport implications of travel to and from university. Firstly the journey between university and term time address (or permanent address if the respondent does not have a separate term time address), secondly the journey between the university area and a separate permanent address where relevant; and thirdly implications for emissions resulting from university-related travel.The study found that student car users were more likely to be female, older students, or studying part time; male students were more likely to use active modes. The study indicated interesting differences between students living in different parts of the UK and Ireland. For example, it was found that there was a higher level of car dependence amongst Northern Irish students compared to other areas; and a greater variability in travel distances in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England, car use was more pronounced when students travelled from their permanent address to term time address, and, as in Ireland, there was evidence of more car sharing on such trips. Public transport usage was more pronounced amongst Scottish students. The effect of these transport choices on emissions is significant and demonstrates the importance of education related trips to the development of a transport policy response. The analysis shows that annual emissions are highest for regular travel to and from university when a student has a permanent address rather than a separate term time and permanent address.     

Could you also have made this trip by another mode? An investigation of perceived travel possibilities of car and train travellers on the main travel corridors to the city of Amsterdam,The Netherlands

We investigated perceived travel possibilities (or subjective choice-sets, consideration-sets) of car and train travellers on the main corridors to the city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and associations with traveller and trip characteristics. We conducted secondary analysis on a survey sample consisting of 7950 train and 19,232 car travellers. Forty-five percent of train travellers had a car in their objective choice-set, 27% of them would however never use it for this trip. Trip destination city centre, trip purpose, paying for the trip, public transport commitment, traffic congestion and parking problems were associated with consideration of car as alternative. Forty-two percent of car travellers had public transport in their subjective choice-set. The ratio between perceived public transport and objective car travel time stood out as determinant of consideration-sets, next to destination city centre, trip purpose, travel time and private versus company car ownership. On average, car travellers’ perceptions of public transport travel time exceeded objective values by 46%. We estimated that if perceptions would be more accurate, two out of three car travellers that currently do not see public transport as an alternative would include it in their choice-set, and use it from time to time. This effect has strong theoretical and policy implications.     

Walking short distances. The socioeconomic drivers for the use of proximity in everyday mobility in Barcelona

Many studies have found that cities, with residents that are co-located with jobs and services in compact and diverse urban environments, generate positive outputs for a number of areas of social policy, with issues ranging from environmental to social and including public health. This evidence supports promoting rich and thriving neighbourhoods in order to encourage short distance mobility. In this context, we use a wide travel survey (EMQ06), undertaken in Spain, to measure short-distance travelling within Barcelona and to assess how distinct social groups make use of the local scale for their everyday mobility. The effects of socioeconomics and access to transport are discussed, prior to applying a Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) method, in order to explore heterogeneity among the different social groups, in terms of local travelling. We found that nearly a quarter of all daily mobility in Barcelona is performed with a local trip, and that short trips are more frequently undertaken for personal purposes. Also, age, gender and access to private transport appear as significant factors. Overall, our results suggest that a proximity scale is being used by those groups with greater time–space constraints, such as working women or low income people without access to private vehicles, opening important implications on transport policy regarding the design of proximity-prone environments.     

The role of incentives towards adolescents’ commitment to use public transport in Malaysia

This study examines the adoption of a travel behaviour modification programme to encourage sustainable mobility and public bus usage. Students from four schools in Penang Island were recruited and divided into two groups: Group 1 (without incentives) and Group 2 (with incentives). In the experiment, after having a motivation session about sustainable transport, the respondents were asked to design their travel patterns for seven days. The next session gathered data about their actual travel and asked for feedback regarding the programme. The results demonstrate that incentives encouraged respondents to follow their plans for travel behaviour and public bus usage. The results highlight that their commitment to follow their travel plans were influenced by ethnicity, distance from home to school, travel time, and household income. The study offers some discussion regarding the implications of the results for strengthening sustainable mobility and encouraging public bus use among adolescents.     

Barriers to Passenger Rail Use: A Review of the Evidence

Research has shown that even when rail travel is the most cost-effective mode of transport for a particular journey, many travellers will still choose other modes. This indicates the existence of non-financial barriers to rail use, and this paper reviews the evidence on the importance of such barriers, focusing particularly on the UK but also considering research from other countries. A total of 37 distinct barriers were identified, and these can be divided into “hard”, “soft” and “complementary” factors. Travellers are unlikely to consider these barriers individually, viewing them instead as a package, which can make it difficult to identify which barriers are most significant. In many cases, all barriers which exist for a particular traveller will need to be addressed before mode shift occurs. After considering the relative importance of the different barriers, the paper concludes by making some suggestions as to the most effective ways in which these barriers can be overcome and mode shift to rail achieved. This has key implications for transport policy, as it can inform the targeting of the limited funds available to influence travel behaviour and increase the sustainability of travel patterns.     

Effects of land-use transport scenarios on travel patterns: a multi-state supernetwork application

Understanding travellers’ response is essential to address policy questions arising from spatial and transport planning sectors. This paper demonstrates the usefulness of the multi-state supernetwork approach to investigate the effects of land-use transport scenarios on individuals’ travel patterns. In particular, it illustrates that multi-state supernetworks are capable of representing activity-travel patterns at a high level of detail, including the choice of mode, route, parking and activity location. Multi-faceted activity-travel preferences can be accommodated in supernetworks. Using a micro-simulation approach, the adaptation of individuals’ travel patterns to policies can be readily captured. The illustration concerns hypothetical land-use and transport scenarios for the city of Rotterdam (The Netherlands), focusing on accessibility changes, modal substitution and shift in the use of transport and location facilities.     

Gender differences in travel behaviour and willingness to adopt sustainable behaviour

This paper presents pioneering research on gender differences in travel behaviour in southeastern Europe. The study analyses the socio-economic and main travel characteristics (particularly parking) of men and women. Additionally, it examines the influence of parking demand management measures on their behaviour, in terms of the willingness of men and women to reduce car use and to adopt more sustainable behaviour. The results reveal significant differences between genders in most of the characteristics examined. Moreover, it is shown that women are less car dependent and more sensitive to parking pricing and, therefore, more willing to replace a car journey with public transport. These findings suggest that gender should be an essential parameter when user behaviour is examined and modelled. Furthermore, the results indicate that gender differences must be considered when transport policy is created to affect the behaviour of men and women equally. The achievement of social equality is one of the primary objectives of sustainable development.     

The influence of parents’ travel patterns,perceptions and residential self-selectivity to their children travel mode shares

Using the UK National Travel Survey from 2002 to 2006, this paper investigates the influence of households’ residential self-selectivity, parents’ perceptions on accessibilities and their travel patterns on their children daily travel mode share. In doing this, this study introduces a model structure that represents the complex interactions between the parents’ travel patterns, their perceptions on public transport services and their reported residential self-selectivity reasons and the children travel mode shares. This structure is analysed with structural equation modelling. The model estimation results show that parents’ residential self-selectivity, parents’ perceptions and satisfactions on accessibilities and their daily travel patterns significantly influence the children’s daily travel mode shares. However, the effects are not uniform across household members. This study has revealed that households’ residential self-selectivity behaviours have more correlations with the children’s non-motorised mode shares, whilst the parents’ perceptions and satisfactions on transport infrastructure and public transport service qualities have more correlations with parents’ mode shares. The results also confirm that parents’ non-motorised modes use in travelling is highly correlated with the children’s physically active travel mode shares. However, at the same time, the results also show that the effects of mothers’ car use to the children travel mode shares is more apparent than fathers’.     

Policy analysis of third party electronic coupons for public transit fares

Mobile technologies are generating new business models for urban transport systems, as is evident from recent startups cropping up from the private sector. Public transport systems can make more use of mobile technologies than just for measuring system performance, improving boarding times, or for analyzing travel patterns. A new transaction model is proposed for public transport systems where travelers are allowed to pre-book their fares and trade that demand information to private firms. In this public-private partnership model, fare revenue management is outsourced to third party private firms such as big box retail or large planned events (such as sports stadiums and theme parks), who can issue electronic coupons to travelers to subsidize their fares. This e-coupon pricing model is analyzed using marginal cost theory for the transit service and shown to be quite effective for monopolistic coupon rights, particularly for demand responsive transit systems that feature high cost fares, non-commute travel purposes, and a closed access system with existing pre-booking requirements. However, oligopolistic scenarios analyzed using game theory and network economics suggest that public transport agencies need to take extreme care in planning and implementing such a policy. Otherwise, they risk pushing an equivalent tax on private firms or disrupting the urban economy and real estate values while increasing ridership.     

Transport and society1

In 1963, the Buchanan Report in the UK advocated a combination of new road capacity, improved public transport and traffic restraint as a means to tackle congestion. Forty years on, and the advice from many transport experts remains the same. However, the scale and complexity of the problems associated with a mobility‐dependent society have grown. The need for politicians to make tough but realistic policy decisions on transport is now becoming unavoidable. They must confront the realities of living with the car as must the general public. Policymakers now also have social well‐being and sustainable development moving higher on their agendas alongside transport. Against such a backdrop, the paper makes the case for transport research, policy and practice to acknowledge more fully the inherent links between transport and society. It argues that greater recognition and understanding of such links is crucial to confronting the present realities. Transport does not merely serve society: it shapes society, as in turn society shapes transport. The future of each is dependent on the other, and this fact must be recognized. The paper advocates in turn that the transport profession must move from its heartlands in engineering and economics also to embrace more fully such disciplines as sociology and psychology. A factual picture of the many facets of present‐day society is presented and the implications for travel demand are discussed. Through considering phenomena such as social norms and habitual behaviour, it is then argued that the travel choices and behaviour of individuals are not simply a matter of economic optimization. This points to the need for decision‐makers to be furnished with better evidence about the transport problems faced and the potential efficacy of measures that might be taken. Discussion of public attitudes and the role of the media are included in the context of assessing how politicians can be encouraged and supported in their implementation of realistic but unpopular policies. Evidence and experience within the paper are UK based, although many of the issues and arguments apply world wide.     

Direct and indirect influences on employed adults’ travel in the UK: New insights from the National Travel Survey data 2002–2010

Recent years saw a continuing shift in labour force composition, e.g. greater participation of women and a prominent rise in part-time workers. There are as yet relatively few recent studies that examine systematically the influences on the travel of employed adults from such perspectives, particularly regarding possible transport disadvantages of the fastest growing segments of workers. A robust analysis requires systematic data on a wide range of explanatory variables and multiple travel outcomes including accessibility, mobility and trip frequency for different trip purposes. The UK NTS data does meet the majority of this demanding data requirement, but its full use has so far been hampered by methodological difficulties. To overcome complex endogeneity problems, we develop novel, integrated structural equation models (SEMs) to uncover the influences of latent land use characteristics, indirect influences on car ownership, interactions among trip purposes as well as residents’ self-selection and spatial sorting. This general-purpose method provides a new, systematic decomposition of the influences on travel outcomes, where the effects of each variable can be examined in turn with robust error terms. The new insights underline two direct policy implications. First, it highlights the contributions of land use planning and urban design in restraining travel demand in the 2000s, and their increasing influence over the decade. Secondly, it shows that there may still be a large mobility disadvantage among the fastest growing segments of workers, particularly in dense urban areas. This research further investigates trend breaking influences before and after 2007 through grouped SEM models, as a test of the methodology for producing regular and timely updates regarding the main influences on personal travel from a system level.     

Quantifying the transport-related impacts of parental school choice in England

School travel is becoming increasingly car-based and this is leading to many environmental and health implications for children all over the world. One of several reasons for this is that journey to school distances have increased over time. This is a trend that has been reinforced in some countries by the adoption of so-called ‘school choice’ policies, whereby parents can apply on behalf of their child(ren) to attend any school, and not only the school they live closest to. This paper examines the traffic and environmental impacts of the school choice policy in England. It achieves this by analysing School Census data from 2009 from the Department for Education. Multinomial logit modelling and mixed multinomial logit modelling are used to illustrate the current travel behaviour of English children in their journey to school and examine how there can be a significant reduction in vehicle miles travelled, CO₂ emissions and fuel consumption if the ‘school choice’ policy is removed. The model shows that when school choice was replaced by a policy where each child only travelled to their ‘nearest school’ several changes occurred in English school travel. Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) by motorised transport fell by 1 % for car travel and 10 % for bus travel per day. The reduction in vehicle miles travelled could lead to less congestion on the roads during the morning rush hour and less cars driving near school gates. Mode choice changed in the modelled scenario. Car use fell from 32 to 22 %. Bus use fell from 12 to 7 %, whilst NMT saw a rise of 17 %. With more children travelling to school by walking or cycling the current epidemic of childhood obesity could also be reduced through active travel.     

Sociological perspectives on travel and mobilities: A review

There is increasing interest in understanding and achieving changes in travel behaviour, but a focus on individual behaviour change may overlook the potential for achieving change via transformation at the levels of institutions, cultures and societies – the domains of sociological inquiry. In this paper, we review sociological contributions to the literature on travel and ‘mobilities’. We summarise four key themes which supplement or contradict arguments made in mainstream transport debates on behaviour change. The first involves focusing on travel ‘practices’ as social entities with dynamics of their own, rather than on individual behaviours. The second relates to the changing natures of societies, and the implications for travel. The third explores and interprets the issue of car dependence in ways which highlight the ethical, experiential and emotional dimensions associated with car use, its symbolic role in societies increasingly concerned with consumption, and its differing roles within different cultures. Finally, the ‘new mobilities paradigm’ highlights issues such as the increasing links between travel and new technologies, and the primacy of social networks in influencing travel decisions. These themes emphasise the importance of understanding the broader contexts in which travel choices are made. In particular, the implication is that the creation of more sustainable travel patterns will require changes at a range of social levels, not simply in individual behaviours, and that changes to transport will inevitably be linked with, and influenced by, broader changes in the values and practices developed by societies as a whole.     

Area- and gender-based commuting differentials in India’s largest urban-rural region

In the countries of the Global South such as India, rapid urbanization and the increase in individual motorization may lead to a predominance of unsustainable commuting patterns. However, urbanization also has important positive effects, including the empowerment of women. This paper examines newly released, spatially disaggregated data on home-to-work commuting by non-agricultural workers in the National Capital Region of India. It aims to understand and compare commuting patterns in urban and rural areas, including choice of travel modes, commuting distances, and gender differentials.The results reveal a tendency observable in urban residents to use individual motorized transport more often both for short and for long trips, although the proportion of individual motorization is far from what it is in the industrial world. Rural areas are characterized by the predominance of non-motorized travel modes and a large share of long trips. The mobility gap between men and women does not appear to increase with literacy. In urban areas, women often choose to commute by car rather than using green modes of transportation (especially in higher-income districts). The paper stresses the importance of the area and gender differentials that need to be taken into account when formulating regional transport policies.     

Grouping travelers on the basis of their different car and transit levels of use

Market segmentation studies in travel behavior research are ordinarily based on socioeconomic characteristics and personality traits. This study explores the usefulness of a different approach, where the actual overall mobility levels across different ground transportation modes, along with desired changes in the use of cars and transit, are used as clustering variables. Using a given mode can in fact influence the personal representation of that mode, which in turn has been proven to be a key element in transport behaviours. We form such multimodality-based clusters from two field studies, one involving employees of the French transportation research institute INRETS and the other a representative sample of residents of the US San Francisco Bay Area. We find that strong users of a given mode would like to bring more balance to their “modal consumptions” by decreasing the use of this mode more than the average, and increasing the use of the alternative mode. However, concerning ground transport travel budgets, the desire to travel more (or less) overall seems less strongly related to the composition of the modal balance. The US dataset shows also a greater latent demand for travel than the French one. Socioeconomic characteristics of the clusters could not explain the patterns that were found, confirming the importance of taking into account multimodality issues in travel behavior research. Some policy implications from these findings are finally reported.