IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v97y2020icp95-102.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What drives the gender-cycling-gap? Census analysis from Ireland

Author

Listed:
  • Carroll, James
  • Brazil, William
  • Morando, Bruno
  • Denny, Eleanor

Abstract

Cycling rates have been increasing in Ireland over the last ten years, but there is a large difference in male and female participation – only about a quarter of cyclists on Irish roads are female. This paper combines the latest census data with geospatial cycle lane data to explore the drivers of the gender-cycling-gap across 238 electoral districts in Dublin, Ireland. Our core hypothesis is motivated by previous literature which suggests that differences in female risk aversion could partly explain the gap. To test this hypothesis, we explore if areas with safer cycling routes to the city centre have relatively stronger effects for females, controlling for a range of area geographic and demographic factors. Both male and female bicycle participation is negatively correlated with an area's distance to the city, share of apartments and average income, and positively correlated with education. Comparing results across genders shows that the gender-cycling-gap is due to relatively larger negative effects for distance, income and apartments for females, which is partly offset by stronger positive education effects. Routes with very high shares of separated or off-road lanes (top quartile) have significantly higher cycling rates. This effect, although stronger for females, is not statistically different across genders. We highlight a number of gender-based policy recommendations related to cycling infrastructure, bicycle storage and bicycle supports (electric bicycles).

Suggested Citation

  • Carroll, James & Brazil, William & Morando, Bruno & Denny, Eleanor, 2020. "What drives the gender-cycling-gap? Census analysis from Ireland," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 95-102.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:97:y:2020:i:c:p:95-102
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.07.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X20300809
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.07.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Song, Yena & Preston, John & Ogilvie, David, 2017. "New walking and cycling infrastructure and modal shift in the UK: A quasi-experimental panel study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 320-333.
    2. Pucher, John & Buehler, Ralph & Seinen, Mark, 2011. "Bicycling renaissance in North America? An update and re-appraisal of cycling trends and policies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 451-475, July.
    3. Nkurunziza, Alphonse & Zuidgeest, Mark & Brussel, Mark & Van Maarseveen, Martin, 2012. "Examining the potential for modal change: Motivators and barriers for bicycle commuting in Dar-es-Salaam," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 249-259.
    4. Ipek Sener & Naveen Eluru & Chandra Bhat, 2009. "An analysis of bicycle route choice preferences in Texas, US," Transportation, Springer, vol. 36(5), pages 511-539, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rupi, Federico & Freo, Marzia & Poliziani, Cristian & Postorino, Maria Nadia & Schweizer, Joerg, 2023. "Analysis of gender-specific bicycle route choices using revealed preference surveys based on GPS traces," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1-14.
    2. Higuera-Mendieta, Diana & Uriza, Pablo Andrés & Cabrales, Sergio A. & Medaglia, Andrés L. & Guzman, Luis A. & Sarmiento, Olga L., 2021. "Is the built-environment at origin, on route, and at destination associated with bicycle commuting? A gender-informed approach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    3. Xinyi Xie & Mingyang Du & Xuefeng Li & Yunjian Jiang, 2023. "Exploring Influential Factors of Free-Floating Bike-Sharing Usage Frequency before and after COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-17, May.
    4. Cunha, Isabel & Silva, Cecília & Büttner, Benjamin & Toivonen, Tuuli, 2024. "Pursuing cycling equity? A mixed-methods analysis of cycling plans in European cities," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 237-246.
    5. Esther Fasan & Miles Tight & Harry Evdorides, 2021. "Factors Influencing Cycling among Secondary School Adolescents in an Ethnically Diverse City: The Perspective of Birmingham Transport Stakeholders," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-17, November.
    6. Nessa Winston, 2022. "Sustainable community development: Integrating social and environmental sustainability for sustainable housing and communities," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 191-202, February.
    7. Ross Higgins & Aoife Ahern, 2021. "Students’ and Parents’ Perceptions of Barriers to Cycling to School—An Analysis by Gender," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-16, November.
    8. Silm, Siiri & Tominga, Ago & Saidla, Karl & Poom, Age & Tammaru, Tiit, 2024. "Socio-economic and residential differences in urban modality styles based on a long-term smartphone experiment," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    9. Palm, Matthew, 2024. "The impact of night and evening shift work on social exclusion, family travel, and mobilities of care," SocArXiv ts8zf, Center for Open Science.
    10. Adam, Matthieu & Sayagh, David & Buhler, Thomas, 2024. "Preaching to the converted? Socially unequal reception of a bike repair subsidy in France," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 31-39.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wilson, Adam & Mitra, Raktim, 2020. "Implementing cycling infrastructure in a politicized space: Lessons from Toronto, Canada," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    2. Afua Kokayi & Shino Shiode & Narushige Shiode, 2023. "Geographical Exploration of the Underrepresentation of Ethnic Minority Cyclists in England," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-17, March.
    3. McArthur, David Philip & Hong, Jinhyun, 2019. "Visualising where commuting cyclists travel using crowdsourced data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 233-241.
    4. Scorrano, Mariangela & Danielis, Romeo, 2021. "Active mobility in an Italian city: Mode choice determinants and attitudes before and during the Covid-19 emergency," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Fitch, Dillon T. & Handy, Susan L., 2020. "Road environments and bicyclist route choice: The cases of Davis and San Francisco, CA," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    6. Bhat, Chandra R. & Dubey, Subodh K. & Nagel, Kai, 2015. "Introducing non-normality of latent psychological constructs in choice modeling with an application to bicyclist route choice," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 341-363.
    7. Meinherz, Franziska & Binder, Claudia R., 2020. "The dynamics of modal shifts in (sub)urban commuting: An empirical analysis based on practice theories," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Yeran Sun & Yunyan Du & Yu Wang & Liyuan Zhuang, 2017. "Examining Associations of Environmental Characteristics with Recreational Cycling Behaviour by Street-Level Strava Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-12, June.
    9. Andreas Blitz & Annika Busch-Geertsema & Martin Lanzendorf, 2020. "More Cycling, Less Driving? Findings of a Cycle Street Intervention Study in the Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-25, January.
    10. Milakis, Dimitris & Athanasopoulos, Konstantinos, 2014. "What about people in cycle network planning? applying participative multicriteria GIS analysis in the case of the Athens metropolitan cycle network," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 120-129.
    11. Frank, Lawrence D. & Hong, Andy & Ngo, Victor Douglas, 2021. "Build it and they will cycle: Causal evidence from the downtown Vancouver Comox Greenway," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 1-11.
    12. Fernando Fonseca & Paulo Ribeiro & Carolina Neiva, 2023. "A Planning Practice Method to Assess the Potential for Cycling and to Design a Bicycle Network in a Starter Cycling City in Portugal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, March.
    13. Morgan, Njogu, 2020. "The stickiness of cycling: Residential relocation and changes in utility cycling in Johannesburg," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    14. Motoaki, Yutaka & Daziano, Ricardo A., 2015. "A hybrid-choice latent-class model for the analysis of the effects of weather on cycling demand," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 217-230.
    15. Ziwen Ling & Christopher R. Cherry & John H. MacArthur & Jonathan X. Weinert, 2017. "Differences of Cycling Experiences and Perceptions between E-Bike and Bicycle Users in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, September.
    16. Stefan Flügel & Nina Hulleberg & Aslak Fyhri & Christian Weber & Gretar Ævarsson, 2019. "Empirical speed models for cycling in the Oslo road network," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1395-1419, August.
    17. Götschi, Thomas & Hintermann, Beat, 2013. "Valuation of public investment to support bicycling (FV-09)," Working papers 2013/02, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    18. Anowar, Sabreena & Eluru, Naveen & Hatzopoulou, Marianne, 2017. "Quantifying the value of a clean ride: How far would you bicycle to avoid exposure to traffic-related air pollution?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 66-78.
    19. Bartzokas-Tsiompras, Alexandros & Bakogiannis, Efthimios & Nikitas, Alexandros, 2023. "Global microscale walkability ratings and rankings: A novel composite indicator for 59 European city centres," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    20. John Stehlin, 2015. "Cycles of Investment: Bicycle Infrastructure, Gentrification, and the Restructuring of the San Francisco Bay Area," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(1), pages 121-137, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cycling participation; Gender imbalance; Bicycle lanes; Bicycle safety;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:97:y:2020:i:c:p:95-102. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.