Why Working Women Drive Alone: Implications for Travel Reduction Programs

A study was funded by the U.S. Department of Labor to analyze the differential impact of mandatory trip reduction programs on employed men and women in different family situations. Travel demand management (TDM) programs can be expected to have a direct impact on working women with young children, who compose the largest component of the growth in the use of the car in the last two decades. The study found that in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, men and women had different travel patterns, even when controlling for marital status and the presence of children of various ages, as well as income and occupation. Having children had far more impact on working mothers than on comparable working fathers. Women with children were more likely to drive to work at all income levels than were comparable men or other women. The younger their children and the more children they had, the more likely women were to drive to work alone. Conversely, the more and the younger their children, the less likely working women were to use alternate modes. The findings indicate how dependent working mothers are on the car to balance their domestic and child care obligations and the need to identify the equity consequences of specific TDM requirements, to develop sets of TDM measures that respond to the time and cost constraints of working women, and to develop ways to offset the negative impacts on working mothers.