IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i18p7286-d409321.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender and Age Differences in Metropolitan Car Use. Recent Gender Gap Trends in Private Transport

Author

Listed:
  • Jerònia Cubells

    (Research Group on Mobility, Transportation and Territory (GEMOTT), Department of Geography, Autonomous University of Barcelona—Building B, Campus de Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Oriol Marquet

    (Research Group on Mobility, Transportation and Territory (GEMOTT), Department of Geography, Autonomous University of Barcelona—Building B, Campus de Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Carme Miralles-Guasch

    (Research Group on Mobility, Transportation and Territory (GEMOTT), Department of Geography, Autonomous University of Barcelona—Building B, Campus de Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
    Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), Autonomous University of Barcelona—Building ICTA-ICP, Campus de Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193 Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

Urban mobility is currently undergoing significant changes in cities worldwide, as gendered mobilities are converging and automobility is on a downward trend among younger cohorts. The aim of this study was to examine the dynamics of gendered mobilities over generations and across three different urban contexts in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (northeast Spain), in an effort to understand whether the mobility gender gap is closing and whether young adults have lowered their private transport levels. Generalized linear models were built to analyze travel survey data from the Working Day Mobility Survey (EMEF) to comprehend mobility changes between 2008 and 2018. The study identified a generational countertrend among new generations of young adults, who reported more sustainable mobility practices than their predecessors. Furthermore, results show a general trend towards gender convergence of travel behavior on the outskirts of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, but also a tendency towards gender divergence in the core area of Barcelona City. Since the mobility gender gap is closer to convergence in those areas where private transport use is more widespread, future efforts towards achieving climate objectives should aim at decoupling such gender convergence from car-dependent built environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Jerònia Cubells & Oriol Marquet & Carme Miralles-Guasch, 2020. "Gender and Age Differences in Metropolitan Car Use. Recent Gender Gap Trends in Private Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-14, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7286-:d:409321
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7286/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7286/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tilley, Sara & Houston, Donald, 2016. "The gender turnaround: Young women now travelling more than young men," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 349-358.
    2. Caroline Bayart & N. Havet & Patrick Bonnel & Louafi Bouzouina, 2019. "Young people and the private car: a love-hate relationship," Post-Print hal-02163268, HAL.
    3. Frändberg, Lotta & Vilhelmson, Bertil, 2011. "More or less travel: personal mobility trends in the Swedish population focusing gender and cohort," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1235-1244.
    4. Craig, Lyn & van Tienoven, Theun Pieter, 2019. "Gender, mobility and parental shares of daily travel with and for children: a cross-national time use comparison," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 93-102.
    5. Chidambaram, Bhuvanachithra & Scheiner, Joachim, 2020. "Understanding relative commuting within dual-earner couples in Germany," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 113-129.
    6. Xu, JieLan, 2020. "Generational trends of gendered mobility: How do they interact with geographical contexts?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    7. Crane, Randall, 2007. "Is There a Quiet Revolution in Women's Travel? Revisiting the Gender Gap in Commuting," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt8nj9n8nb, University of California Transportation Center.
    8. David Metz, 2013. "Peak Car and Beyond: The Fourth Era of Travel," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 255-270, May.
    9. Meng Zhou & Donggen Wang, 2019. "Investigating inter-generational changes in activity-travel behavior: a disaggregate approach," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(5), pages 1643-1687, October.
    10. Joachim Scheiner & Christian Holz-Rau, 2017. "Women’s complex daily lives: a gendered look at trip chaining and activity pattern entropy in Germany," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 117-138, January.
    11. Scheiner, Joachim, 2014. "Gendered key events in the life course: effects on changes in travel mode choice over time," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 47-60.
    12. Hjorthol, Randi J. & Levin, Lena & Sirén, Anu, 2010. "Mobility in different generations of older persons," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 624-633.
    13. Boarnet, Marlon G. & Hsu, Hsin-Ping, 2015. "The gender gap in non-work travel: The relative roles of income earning potential and land use," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 111-127.
    14. Marquet, Oriol & Miralles-Guasch, Carme, 2016. "City of Motorcycles. On how objective and subjective factors are behind the rise of two-wheeled mobility in Barcelona," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 37-45.
    15. Scheiner, Joachim & Holz-Rau, Christian, 2012. "Gendered travel mode choice: a focus on car deficient households," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 250-261.
    16. Prillwitz, Jan & Barr, Stewart, 2011. "Moving towards sustainability? Mobility styles, attitudes and individual travel behaviour," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1590-1600.
    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. Lucía Mejía-Dorantes & Lídia Montero & Jaume Barceló, 2021. "Mobility Trends before and after the Pandemic Outbreak: Analyzing the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona through the Lens of Equality and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-23, July.
    2. Najah Al-Garawi & Ismail Anil, 2021. "Geographical Distribution and Modeling of the Impact of Women Driving Cars on the Sustainable Development of Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Muhammad Ahmad Al-Rashid & Kh Md Nahiduzzaman & Sohel Ahmed & Tiziana Campisi & Nurten Akgün, 2020. "Gender-Responsive Public Transportation in the Dammam Metropolitan Region, Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Cubells, Jerònia & Miralles-Guasch, Carme & Marquet, Oriol, 2023. "Gendered travel behaviour in micromobility? Travel speed and route choice through the lens of intersecting identities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

    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. Xu, JieLan, 2020. "Generational trends of gendered mobility: How do they interact with geographical contexts?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Havet, Nathalie & Bayart, Caroline & Bonnel, Patrick, 2021. "Why do Gender Differences in Daily Mobility Behaviours persist among workers?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 34-48.
    3. Craig, Lyn & van Tienoven, Theun Pieter, 2019. "Gender, mobility and parental shares of daily travel with and for children: a cross-national time use comparison," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 93-102.
    4. Maciejewska, Monika & Marquet, Oriol & Miralles-Guasch, Carme, 2019. "Changes in gendered mobility patterns in the context of the Great Recession (2007–2012)," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Isabelle Wachter & Christian Holz-Rau, 2022. "Gender differences in work-related high mobility differentiated by partnership and parenthood status," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 1737-1764, December.
    6. Chidambaram, Bhuvanachithra & Scheiner, Joachim, 2020. "Understanding relative commuting within dual-earner couples in Germany," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 113-129.
    7. Katarzyna Nosal Hoy & Sabina Puławska-Obiedowska, 2021. "The Travel Behaviour of Polish Women and Adaptation of Transport Systems to Their Needs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-27, March.
    8. Michael Iacono & David Levinson, 2015. "Cohort Effects and Their Influence on Car Ownership," Working Papers 000138, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    9. Yusak O. Susilo & Chengxi Liu & Maria Börjesson, 2019. "The changes of activity-travel participation across gender, life-cycle, and generations in Sweden over 30 years," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 793-818, June.
    10. Reuschke, Darja & Houston, Donald, 2020. "Revisiting the gender gap in commuting through self-employment," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    11. Ghadir Pourhashem & Eva Malichová & Terezia Piscová & Tatiana Kováčiková, 2022. "Gender Difference in Perception of Value of Travel Time and Travel Mode Choice Behavior in Eight European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-28, August.
    12. Yingling Fan, 2017. "Household structure and gender differences in travel time: spouse/partner presence, parenthood, and breadwinner status," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 271-291, March.
    13. Susilo, Yusak & Liu, Chengxi & Börjesson, Maria, 2018. "The changes of activity-travel participation across gender, life-cycle, and generations in Sweden over 30 years," Working papers in Transport Economics 2018:8, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    14. Scheiner, Joachim, 2014. "Gendered key events in the life course: effects on changes in travel mode choice over time," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 47-60.
    15. Tilley, Sara & Houston, Donald, 2016. "The gender turnaround: Young women now travelling more than young men," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 349-358.
    16. Hjorthol, Randi & Vågane, Liva, 2014. "Allocation of tasks, arrangement of working hours and commuting in different Norwegian households," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 75-83.
    17. Cecilia Olivieri & Xavier Fageda, 2019. "Determinants of urban mobility with a focus on gender: a multilevel analysis in the Metropolitan Area of Montevideo, Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0419, Department of Economics - dECON.
    18. Gil Solá, Ana, 2016. "Constructing work travel inequalities: The role of household gender contracts," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 32-40.
    19. Lo, A. W.-T. & Houston, D., 2018. "How do compact, accessible, and walkable communities promote gender equality in spatial behavior?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 42-54.
    20. Wheatley, Daniel, 2014. "Travel-to-work and subjective well-being: A study of UK dual career households," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 187-196.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7286-:d:409321. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.