Sex, Race and Travel

How do race, age, sex and other social and economic circumstances influence both the demand for and supply of travel by place, means and purpose? Dozens of studies indicate that while women as a group drive more each year, and tend to take more trips than men, men still drive more overall. Explanations include women's rising labor force participation and their enduring disproportionate share of domestic and child-oriented responsibilities. As these two trends continue to evolve, much remains unclear about how they and other changes in key demographic, family, and economic factors translate into changing driving patterns. In 1990 San Francisco, working men reported driving more than working women in all age groups but 23-39. By contrast, in 2000, travel times were the same by sex for all age groups but one. Women traveled less in single, childless adult families in 1990, but more by 2000. These trends have not been analyzed for individual-level, longitudinal national data containing rich detail on family structure. It is thus unknown whether the so-called gender gap is shrinking nationwide when using proper statistical controls. We will analyze the National sample from the American Housing Survey, comprising 11 waves from 1985 to 2005. The model specification conforms to urban form theory, the model estimation uses panel techniques, and the potential endogeneity of wages and land costs will be addressed statistically.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $66418.00
• Contract Numbers:

  SA6297

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Department of Transportation

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  California Department of Transportation

  1227 O Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95843
• Performing Organizations:

  University of California, Los Angeles

  Los Angeles, CA  United States 

  University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)

  University of California, Berkeley
  2614 Dwight Way, 2nd Floor
  Berkeley, CA  United States  94720-1782
• Principal Investigators:

  Crane, Randall

• Start Date: 20080801
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20100731
• Source Data: RiP Project 27941

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economic factors; Gender; Race; Statistical analysis; Travel; Travel patterns; Travel time
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01463764
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)
• Contract Numbers: SA6297
• Files: UTC, RIP, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jan 3 2013 2:29PM