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To choose, or not to choose, a nearby activity option: Understanding the gendered role of proximity in urban settings
Abstract
Although proximity by densification is a leading strategy to promote sustainable mobility, knowledge of the gendered and situated use of proximity is scarce. This study explores how women and men use nearby amenities in urban environments varying in amenity concentration. We use survey data from cities in western Sweden to analyse how amenity density, socioeconomic factors, and attitudinal factors affect women's and men's choices of activity location, and to explore the motives underlying these choices. Applying a time-geographic understanding of the role of proximity in everyday life, we consider two activities situated in different time–space contexts: grocery shopping and leisure activities. Results indicate that the roles of gender and density vary. The choice of regular grocery store appears gendered to only a limited extent: women and men choose a regular grocery store within a similar distance from home; distances are affected by similar factors; and actual choice is motivated by similar reasons. Density promotes proximate use among both women and men. High economic status, habitual car use, and being foreign born induce women and men to travel farther. For women, environmental concern is associated with reduced travel distances, while experiencing time pressure in everyday life is associated with greater distances. Distinct gender differences are found in chosen leisure activities: men engage in regular leisure activities farther from home than women do, and women's local choices are affected by amenity density while no such association is found among men. Men more seldom cite time-constraint and mode-access reasons for their choice of leisure activity location. Location choices are generally made primarily with regard to quality of service rather than, for example, the possibility of walking or biking. We conclude that proximity is important for both women and men, but that its role varies with activity and gender, reflecting the dynamic relationship between proximity, inherent qualities of the activity, and individual values and conditions. Swedish women, to a larger degree than men, experience limitations regarding access to the city. Policy and planning to promote proximity should consider the gendered contexts of everyday activities and the heterogeneity among women and men regarding needs and desires for and constraints on local living.
... These factors include income, age, household composition, caregiving responsibilities, ethnicity, employment status, disability level, location, social class, and educational background. The interplay of these variables creates notable variations in how women travel and their preferences for transportation options [6][7][8]. Additionally, gender variations in travel-mode choice stem primarily from the more complicated activities that women often engage in [9]. Women frequently have many obligations in their households, including jobs, housework, and childcare, due to the gendered division of labor [10]. ...
... Men tend to travel farther to compensate for the lack of local amenities; however, women prioritize proximity and limit activity participation [20,21]. This translates to men's behavior potentially supporting urban sprawl and extensive commuting; whereas, women's preferences align more with urban densification and proximity [8]. Some scholars argue that dispersed urban environments reflect a "male norm" that primarily accommodates car-based travel patterns [22][23][24]. ...
... Research has identified a gap in studying non-work-travel-mode choices in developing countries [31]. The association between amenity density and nonwork-trip travel behavior has mainly been studied in developed nations and areas with high amenity density [8,[32][33][34]. For instance, Li et al. [34] found that land-use mixing influences non-work-travel distances, particularly by public transport. ...
Using survey data from three dwelling types in Jakarta, we examine how dwelling type, socioeconomic identity, and commuting distance affect women’s travel-mode choices and motivations behind women’s choices for nearby and distant non-working trips. We compared the performance of the multinomial logit (MNL) model with two machine-learning classifiers, random forest (RF) and XGBoost, using Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) for interpretation. The models’ efficacy varies across different datasets, with XGBoost mostly outperforming other models. The women’s preferred commuting modes varied by dwelling type and trip purpose, but their motives for choosing the nearest activity were similar. Over half of the women rely on private motorized vehicles, with women living in the gated community heavily relying on private cars. For nearby shopping trips, low income and young age discourage women in urban villages (kampungs) and apartment complexes from walking. Women living in gated communities often choose private cars to fulfill household responsibilities, enabling them to access distant options. For nearby leisure, longer commutes discourage walking except for residents of apartment complexes. Car ownership and household responsibilities increase private car use for distant options. SHAP analysis offers practitioners insights into identifying key variables affecting travel-mode choice to design effective targeted interventions that address women’s mobility needs.
... Table 1 summarizes which urban social functions were selected for each category (including detailed SNI codes for each year). We based the selection of urban social functions on previous research on the 15minute city (Ferrer-Ortiz et al., 2022;Weng et al., 2019) as well as studies identifying the types of amenities that people in Sweden consider important to have nearby in everyday life (Gil Solá & Vilhelmson, 2022;Haugen, 2011). This correlates with choosing nearby options Gil Solá & Vilhelmson, 2022). ...
... We based the selection of urban social functions on previous research on the 15minute city (Ferrer-Ortiz et al., 2022;Weng et al., 2019) as well as studies identifying the types of amenities that people in Sweden consider important to have nearby in everyday life (Gil Solá & Vilhelmson, 2022;Haugen, 2011). This correlates with choosing nearby options Gil Solá & Vilhelmson, 2022). Note that a few important urban social functions such as gyms, museums, and libraries had to be excluded because the SNI codes are not comparable over time. ...
This article aims to examine how key features of the built environment have influenced the development of the 15-minute city in Swedish cities. Using longitudinal register data geocoded at a 100-meter level and encompassing the entire population and workplaces, we track the 200 largest Swedish cities over a 25-year period (1992–2017). The 15-minute city is operationalized as the proportion of the population in each city that can access a range of non-work urban social functions within a short distance from home. The study uses various multivariate modeling techniques, including fixed effect models, to measure the effects of changes in the built environment. We thus address significant research gaps by investigating the dynamic nature of the 15-minute city concept, conducting comparisons within and across multiple cities, and considering the influence of the
built environment, particularly in smaller cities. Results show that population size has less significance than expected, and that smaller cities can achieve certain criteria of the 15-minute city. However, increasing population density and promoting mixed land use clearly contribute to fostering the 15-minute city. Moreover, cities
that to a larger extent were developed before mass motorization tend to exhibit a greater degree of 15-minute city characteristics. The results highlight the mportance of making long-term, thoughtful, strategic decisions in urban planning efforts aimed at transforming cities into 15-minute cities.
... Studies such as those by Shier (2022) and Wei (2022) and colleagues are exemplary, but are specific to lower-income urban communities, as are much of the other studies that have explored similar topics. 33,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] There has been some exploration of rural shopping behaviors, however, minimal along the range of urbanicity (i.e., communities that fall between urban and rural). [13][14][15][16]47 Thus, more work is needed that would employ a similar context-specific approach but in a region that has multiple communities along the urban-rural continuum. ...
... This study presents findings that are consistent with the urban-specific literature conducted in cities such as Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and others that found that lower-income residents rarely shopped at the closest food retail location. 33,36,[44][45][46] This phenomenon is also corroborated by Table 3. Adjusted linear regression analytic findings exploring distances to closest supermarket and demographic and motivation of store-selection-related factors stratified by race/ethnicity. research conducted in rural settings that found that individuals may bypass their closest supermarket/grocery store for other motivations. ...
We examined whether Central Texans shop at their nearest supermarket, how far they travel for groceries, and explored differences by race/ethnicity, urbanicity, motivations for store selection, and other demographic characteristics. Using cross-sectional data and GIS, continuous network distances from participants’ homes to nearest and usual supermarkets were calculated and multivariate linear regression assessed differences. <19% shopped at their nearest supermarket. Regression models found that urbanicity played a large role in distance traveled to preferred supermarket, but other factors varied by race/ethnicity. Our findings demonstrate that racial/ethnic and urbanicity disparities in food access and multiple domains of food access need greater consideration.
... In addition, socio-demographic intersectional characteristics must be considered, as they influence the way in which distances are perceived by individuals. To date, studies have focused on perceived proximity in older and disabled adults (Levasseur et al., 2011), older adults with low socio-economic status (Chen et al., 2016), children (Giuffrida et al., 2024) and different genders (Gil Solá & Vilhelmson, 2022). ...
... The rise of the 15 Minute City concept has coincided in time with a "proximity turn" in the field of urban planning (Handy, 2020;Proffitt et al., 2019). This paradigm shift in the science of accessibility and politics has moved away from the focus on accessibility gained by ease-of-travel to proximity-based accessibility (Gil Solá et al., 2018;Gil Solá & Vilhelmson, 2022;Levine et al., 2012;Marquet & Miralles-Guasch, 2015a;Silva et al., 2023b). Proximity has been studied at the territorial level, analyzing densities, and built environments only (Boyko & Cooper, 2011;Brownstone & Golob, 2009), trying to determine the density of the city that can have a beneficial impact on transportation patterns, or the diversity needed to generate proximity trips (Ewing et al., 2011;Geurs & van Wee, 2004). ...
Policies such as the 15 Minute City seek to reduce car use by ensuring the spatial concentration and proximity of everyday activities. This paper examines how proximity to nearby services in Barcelona affects car use and analyzes whether proximity to everyday destinations affects modal choice and car trip durations differently. By matching self-reported travel behavior data and a series of GIS-based minimum walking travel times to 25 distinct everyday destinations, we are able to assess the links between proximity availability and actual car use. Our findings indicate that closer everyday destinations influence car usage by reducing the frequency of car-based modal choices, though they do not alter travel distances for those who continue to use cars. This study contributes to evidencing the effect of the 15 Minute City's premise regarding car usage reduction.
... While dense urban structures support the usage of active modes of transport or public transport, suburban or rural locations promote car travel (Cao et al. 2007). Dense and urban areas are further associated with shorter trip distances for commuting and grocery shopping due to a higher density of destinations (Surprenant-Legault et al. 2013;Boussauw et al. 2012;Smith et al. 2023;Gil Solá and Vilhelmson 2022). Therefore, urban areas offer additional benefits for active travel. ...
Residential relocations open a window of opportunity to decrease distances to work and other important daily destinations, such as grocery stores. This study investigates changes in trip distances after residential relocation, using data from a panel survey of 435 movers in Germany. We estimate two structural equation models for changes in commute and shopping trip distance. These models additionally allow us to draw insights into the relationships between spatial structure, travel attitudes, satisfaction with the accessibility of the workplace or shopping facilities, and housing preferences in residential location search. We find that there is a weak indication of an association between residential location choice and changes in trip distances. However, the analysis suggests that especially long trip distances are shortened through relocation. While residents in urban areas travel on average shorter distances, both for working and grocery shopping, only the shopping distance decreases after a move to a more urban location. A preference for urban structures leads to an increase in urbanity after relocation only in the model for grocery shopping trips. Even though long trips before relocation lead to dissatisfaction with the commute, we do not observe a direct effect of dissatisfaction with trips or reasons for moving on trip distances after a move.
... Other researchers have incorporated demographic data to highlight who is able to benefit from the most locally accessible locations based on socio-spatial inequalities (Calafiore et al., 2022;Weng et al., 2019). Elldér et al., (2017) have shown differences in accessibility levels by age and income while Gil Solá and Vilhelmson (2022) unveiled distinct patterns of influence of amenity density on travel behaviour across genders. On a broader note, it should be cautioned that the focus on proximity alone is not enough to foster local living as the quality and functionality of provided facilities are also key (Gil Solá, Vilhelmson & Larsson, 2018). ...
... The car may be necessary for some trips, to manage the varying fixity of activities in time and space, and to fulfil the need to coordinate with people and things involved in activities. However, in many situations, multimodality and non-car mobility [40], prioritizing proximity [9,41], and coordinating activities may in fact be sufficient. ...
For the sake of reducing car dependence, much can be learned from non-car owners about how everyday life can, and cannot, be organized without private car ownership. This study aims to explore carless mobility, including the role of the car, in relation to specific everyday projects and life situations. We do so through a descriptive analysis of data from the Swedish National Travel Survey 2011–2016, comparing carless mobility with that of car owners. Theoretically, our analysis builds on a constraints perspective with respect to mobility, which is rooted in time geography. We find that the constraints associated with activities and life situations seem to matter for how mobility is performed and for the feasibility of living a carless life. Managing the material flows of the household (for example, buying food and disposing of waste) is a project handled differently by non-car owners, through using nearby services and with a low degree of car use. On the other hand, our data suggest that maintaining social relations is car dependent and can potentially be more problematic for the carless. Moreover, an individual’s social network itself seems to be an important source of occasional car access. Results also indicate that the life situations of individuals may affect the mobility implications of carlessness, and the largest effect on trip frequency is found among carless retirees. From a planning perspective, and with the ambition to reduce private car use, this study identifies significant value in considering the different contexts of everyday life in which car use may or may not occur.
In the context of the urgent climate crisis in urban areas, transportation policymakers are actively working to shift from car travel to sustainable transportation options through strategic interventions in the built environment. These efforts often involve a dual approach: promoting higher activity density to increase proximity to destinations while enhancing the experience of active mobility. However, a notable gap exists in addressing densely populated areas with established built environments, where the focus remains primarily on improving active mobility infrastructure. This study represents a crucial initial step in tackling this challenge. It examines mode distribution trends and trip purposes in Barcelona, an urban area that has recently seen significant enhancements in active mobility spaces. Our study sheds light on evolving modal share trends by analyzing local travel surveys from 2010 to 2019. The findings reveal relatively unchanged patterns in travel behavior at the city level during the examined years. Nevertheless, a closer examination of mode distribution for specific trip purposes, age ranges, and gender exposes noticeable shifts. The newly implemented infrastructure may have helped prevent a shift from active mobility to car usage, particularly for trips traditionally associated with public transit or walking, such as accessing public or health services. Further research is needed to explore this hypothesis and determine the extent of its impact.
Electric Vehicles (EVs) provide an alternative to traditional mobility and a sustainable means of transportation. As a result, electric vehicle sales are increasing across Europe, prompting researchers to wonder about the impact of EVs on smart grids. The proposed framework simulates users’ activities, highly characterising individual behaviour using Time Use Survey (TUS) data to estimate EV usage and consumption. Then, for each trip, the routes between origin and destination are determined, simulating in separate modules i) the driving behaviour, ii) the motion of the EV and its discharge considering spatial data and iii) the charge considering users’ preference. Thanks to the spatial information openly available, it is possible to characterise the simulation and improve EV consumption estimation. Different scenarios are analysed to demonstrate the versatility of the proposed framework by exploiting its modularity. The individuals’ heterogeneity is considered by using an agent-oriented approach. Furthermore, the simulation proceeds on a time-step basis to enable the use of the simulator in a co-simulation environment for future purposes, such as the integration of power networks. The results indicate that achieving a high realism with limited, i.e. containing scarce data for the problem under study, is feasible, enabling researchers to make informed decisions about future mobility.
In this novel study, a gender audit was conducted to assess how the Seoul (Metro) and Jakarta (MRT) subway systems respond to women's needs. The audit revealed that both Seoul Metro and MRT Jakarta have made significant efforts to accommodate the needs of all passengers, including women. This is commendable because a public transit system that works well for women works better for everyone. With some improvements, both subways could achieve Universal Design standards. The audit protocol developed can be employed to periodically monitor other subway systems in Asia and measure progress towards gender mainstreaming. ARTICLE HISTORY
It is well‐established that urban form can encourage or hinder daily walking activity. Consequently, urban form has a direct impact on both spatial accessibility and the ability of achieving daily physical activity recommendations. However, the relationship between urban form and walking patterns may present relevant differences among different population subgroups, for instance in terms of gender. In order to analyze how the relationship between urban form and daily walking time might be modulated by gender, the present study aims to explore walking patterns of men and women living in different neighborhood types in Barcelona Metropolitan Region (Spain). For this purpose, the study uses data extracted from a smartphone tracking app among a rather specific population group: young adults who commute daily to the same destination. The findings show that compact urban forms promote gender equality. The study especially sheds light to disadvantaged position of young women living in small towns and suburbs, who walk much less than other women and any men.
For the sake of reducing car dependence, much can be learned from non-car owners about how everyday life can, and cannot, be organized without private car ownership. This study aims to explore carless mobility, including the role of the car, in relation to specific everyday projects and life situations. We do so through a descriptive analysis of data from the Swedish National Travel Survey 2011–2016, comparing carless mobility with that of car owners. Theoretically, our analysis builds on a constraints perspective with respect to mobility, which is rooted in time geography. We find that the constraints associated with activities and life situations seem to matter for how mobility is performed and for the feasibility of living a carless life. Managing the material flows of the household (for example, buying food and disposing of waste) is a project handled differently by non-car owners, through using nearby services and with a low degree of car use. On the other hand, our data suggest that maintaining social relations is car dependent and can potentially be more problematic for the carless. Moreover, an individual’s social network itself seems to be an important source of occasional car access. Results also indicate that the life situations of individuals may affect the mobility implications of carlessness, and the largest effect on trip frequency is found among carless retirees. From a planning perspective, and with the ambition to reduce private car use, this study identifies significant value in considering the different contexts of everyday life in which car use may or may not occur.
One of the current dominant strategies proposed for sustainable urban development is densification. While some advocate the very reasonable benefits of density, others emphasize the potential drawbacks. The main goal of this paper is to provide a systematic overview of the claimed benefits of densification in Swedish practice and relate this to the scientific evidence. For the systematic overview, comprehensive plans from 59 Swedish municipalities, covering plans from both highly urbanized areas as well as more rural regions, are included. The results show that in three out of four cases where density or densification is mentioned, no motive is given. For the other quarter, the most often used motivation is related to transport (19%), services (17%) and urban environmental qualities (14%). The least frequent motives used are related to health (8%) and ecology (2%). The motives in comprehensive plans are for the most part pointing to a positive impact of density on sustainable urban development (77%), which is not always supported by the empirical evidence that more often describe a negative correlation. Furthermore, many of the most frequently used motives in comprehensive plans have little scientific support, which puts new questions on the research agenda.
Gender identities are relevant for sustainable transport. By analyzing the synergies between gender inequality (as a problem), and lack of sustainability (another problem), there is a potential to create an understanding of how these problems are linked. Our aim is to better understand how gendered norms find expression in transport policy and planning. Taking a starting point in gender studies we advance four ideal types on masculine and feminine norms and relate them to sustainability in transport. We advance a methodology for studying gender norms in relation to sustainability in terms of how they are expressed in the text. We contribute to a deeper understanding of transportation related to men and masculinity studies, and advance work by masculinity scholars to include sustainability in transportation issues. Through text analysis, we demonstrate empirically how four Swedish municipalities have developed their (sustainable) transport policies 2014–2018. Our results indicate that the level of sustainability, in plans and strategies, are related to the presence of diverse masculine and feminine norms rather than male and female bodies.
It is generally recognized that technological fixes alone cannot solve car-induced sustainability problems requiring measures to reduce car use. However, there is a knowledge gap concerning what we can learn from the experience of people who voluntarily refrain from car ownership. This paper aims to explore how everyday life is organized and perceived by voluntarily carless households with complex travel needs, focusing on dual-income
families with children living in an urban setting (Gothenburg, Sweden). Through a time-geographical theoretical lens and drawing on eight in-depth interviews with parents, we scrutinize the accessibility strategies of these
families and the perceived implications of being voluntarily carless for daily living. We find that these families use largely proximity-oriented strategies and combine various practices in managing time-pressed everyday life.
The findings underscore the situatedness of carlessness and the importance of the inherent constraints and fixities of different everyday life projects. Notably, adaptation is considered to be well functioning in the spheres
of mandatory activities and bounded routines (related to work, school, and consumption). Regarding free-time activities, carlessness is associated with more friction and perceived inconvenience. Questions are raised regarding
the long-term persistence of voluntary carlessness, as family life situations may change. The results merit further consideration in sustainable transport and land use planning as well as regarding the wider organization of society.
This article explores whether women can become the change agents for a sustainable transport sector and how such a change can be accomplished through transport policy. Based on the Swedish case, women still on average have transportation behaviour with lower environmental impact than men have; women also tend to have stronger preferences for improving sustainability in the sector. The results imply that there are interesting behaviour and attitude characteristics expressed by women that ought to be recognised and applied e.g. through contesting prevailing norms and methods, in order to achieve sustainability goals for the sector. Altogether this suggests that women, beyond democracy reasons, should become more active as change agents to challenge the dominant male norms. Policy implications of these findings include measures to improve gender equal participation would e.g. make it possible to take advantage of these differences. Putting more emphasis on the relationships between travel patterns, sustainability and gendering on all levels in transportation planning as a measure for improved sustainability. Implementing new ways of framing the problems to be solved, challenging existing norms working against gender equity and raising consciousness of sustainability issues. Using gender mainstreaming to monitor policy impacts on different groups of men and women. However, today there is a lack of incentives to apply these tools. Since there is a tremendous complexity in the relationships on all levels, more research is needed together with improved dissemination of knowledge for the competence to increase within the transport sector.
We review a number of theories of motivation, and typologies of motivations, in psychological theory and in application to a variety of specific contexts, including shopping, eating, leisure, tourism, and travel. A recurring theme is the distinction between extrinsic (instrumental, utilitarian, functional) and intrinsic (autotelic, hedonic, experiential) motivations. We suggest that travel is a behavior to which intrinsic motivations apply, and that focusing exclusively on the extrinsic motivations to travel runs the risk of substantially underestimating the demand for travel, and the resistance to policies attempting to reduce it or to technologies (notably, information and communication technologies) expected to (partly) replace it. We offer a number of suggestions for improving standard travel surveys to help obtain the data needed to explore intrinsic motivations more fully. As better data become available, travel behavior models can be refined to partly account for such motivations. We believe that the resulting insights will be extremely valuable to policy-makers, planners, and behavioral scholars.
This paper explores people's preferences for living close to destinations such as work, service, leisure and social activities, satisfaction with the proximities offered by their residential location, as well as more general residential satisfaction. The paper draws on the literature on accessibility, residential choice and residential preferences, and is empirically based on a survey targeted at individuals aged 20-64 in the Swedish population. The results suggest that 'proximity prefer-ences' are structured by both practical and social rationales. Preferences also differ to varying degrees between groups with respect to gender, age and type of residential environment. Self-reported distances are short for virtually all destinations except those relating to social relations. People's satisfaction with their residential location relative to their everyday life accessibility needs is also explored in regression analyses. The findings imply that residential location satisfac-tion is related to type of residential environment, dwelling type/tenure, whether the respondents had considered moving to increase the proximity to certain destinations, and their level of satis-faction with the distances from home to various destinations.
The late 1990s and early 2000s witnessed a growing interest amongst UK academics and policy makers in the issue of transport disadvantage and, more innovatively, how this might relate to growing concerns about the social exclusion of low income groups and communities. Studies (predominantly in the United Kingdom) began to make more explicit the links policy between poverty, transport disadvantage, access to key services and economic and social exclusion (see for example Church and Frost, 2000; TRaC, 2000; Lucas et al., 2001; Kenyon 2003; Kenyon et al., 2003; Hodgson and Turner, 2003; Raje, 2003).
Current urban planning for sustainability is gradually shifting from car-based to proximity ideals. However, when concretized in regular planning thinking and practice, the latter ideal becomes contested and complex. This paper explores sustainable accessibility and how urban planners understand, seek to operationalize, and integrate the concept in their planning practices; we consider what planners hope to achieve in this process and the tensions they experience in doing so. The data, collected through semi-structured, focus-group interviews (workshops) with 35 planners in three Swedish municipalities, were subjected to thematic qualitative analysis. Urban planners' interpretations of sustainable accessibility form five recurrent themes: the importance of cross-sectoral approaches in planning; the need for urban land-use densification; measures to shift the transport mode balance in favour of walking, cycling, and public transit; facilitating proximity to everyday activities; and planning in accordance with citizens' rights to access basic services. Although there is overall agreement on these themes, discussing how the related policies should be implemented reveals several tensions, for example: city centre densification could reinforce gentrification, resulting in displacement and increased travel; tension regarding to what extent and where car use should be reduced; trade-offs between the needs of different groups; and accounting for quality and functionality factors when stressing the importance of proximity to services. In conclusion, disagreements arising when implementing sustainable accessibility goals relate in many ways to social considerations and to the socio–spatial distribution of resources.
Directing growth towards denser communities with mixed-use, accessible, and walkable neighborhood design has become an important strategy for promoting sustainability, but few studies have examined whether compact development strategies could help reduce within-household gender disparities in spatial behavior by increasing accessibility. We analyze spatial behavior of heterosexual married couples in Southern California based on the 2012 California Household Travel Survey and find that households living in areas with greater regional accessibility and neighborhood walkability have smaller, more centered, and more compact activity spaces overall compared to households in less compact areas, and that married pairs living in more accessible areas have greater equality in the size and centeredness of their activity spaces. We account for residential selection bias in our multivariate analysis and find that a ten unit increase in near-residence Walk Score was associated with a 12–18% decrease in activity space size, a 6–8% decrease in residential distancing, and a 12–13% increase in spatial concentration for both men and women. Men and women, however, had significantly different activity space behaviors regardless of their neighborhood type. Compared to women, men on average had larger activity spaces and conducted their activities farther from home. Overall, results support our hypothesis that compact development provides married couples greater flexibility in how they divide household out-of-home activities by making destinations more convenient and lowering the overall spatial fixity of these activities. Future research and planning efforts should carefully consider which aspects of compact, accessible development are most effective for a given local context.
There is a clear need for debate about targeted policies to address individual behaviour and car mileage. In this study, the point of departure is that we need more knowledge regarding travel behaviour focusing on the needed reduction in car mileages. The study illustrates a series of travel behaviour analyses that can be applied in any other country striving for more detailed knowledge of the challenges ahead regarding reductions in car mileage. The focus is on passenger mileage by car in relation to the level of passenger mileage by car estimated by the Swedish Transport Administration for a sustainable transport system by 2050. Four distance categories are defined and used. The results indicate that on an average day, the overwhelming majority of total passenger mileage by car (>90%) is produced by a minority of the population (25%) and only approximately half of the population use a car on an average day. There are differences between rural and urban areas, but for the category of high passenger mileage by car, the difference is not remarkable.
There is an extensive literature on relationships between the built environment and travel, but the vast majority of such studies rely solely on statistical analyses of available travel survey data, with limited possibilities for demonstrating causality. This article presents findings from a methodologically novel study drawing on a combination of a tailor-made questionnaire survey and in-depth qualitative interviews, including cross-sectional as well as longitudinal analyses. Our mixed-methods approach offers stronger evidence of causal influences than in most previous studies on the built environment and travel. We illuminate such relationships in two metropolitan areas differing considerably in their size and urban structure: the relatively monocentric Norwegian capital Oslo and the smaller, predominantly polycentric Stavanger area. The study encompasses travel distances and modes for both commuting and intra-metropolitan non-work purposes. The paper thus offers a comparison of the influences of built environment characteristics on travel across metropolitan contexts as well as for different travel purposes.
This paper examines the relationships between socio-demographic characteristics, travel time, the built environment and resulting average activity spaces for all activities and non-work activities separately using data from the 2012 Northeast Ohio Regional Travel Survey. Multiple regression models are developed to analyze these relationships at individual level. First K-means cluster analysis is conducted to create seven neighborhood types based on five built environment variables. These new neighborhood types are used as discrete explanatory variables to explain average activity spaces, while controlling for travel time, individual and household features, access to transit facilities and the job-population balance. The modeling results indicate that residential location characteristics have significant influences on activity spaces. People living in places away from suburban and rural areas and with a high mix of population and employment tend to have smaller activity spaces. Moreover, this study finds out that while the effects of some explanatory variables (such as age and gender) vary for all activities and non-work activities, socially disadvantaged people (such as the elderly and low income households) generally experience smaller activity spaces.
This article analyses how cohabiting women and men negotiate and respond to individual needs and claims related to commuting. The study is based on 20 in-depth interviews with parents of small children, who were highly skilled participants in specialized labour markets, living in the Gothenburg urban region of Sweden. The study applies a time-geography theoretical perspective and uses the concept of gender contract in analysing the interviews. In terms of work travel in everyday life, three distinctive types of gender contracts are identified: the traditional gender contract, the gender-equal contract, and the mixed gender contract. These contracts illustrate how individuals and households handle surrounding socio–spatial structures differently depending on their perceptions and manifestations of gender relationships. The identification of different contracts among the respondents indicates both re-enactment of and opposition to stereotypical gender structures in society; moreover, these contracts illustrate the individual's manoeuvring room within the frames of organizing structures.
This paper is based on qualitative research on commuting and women's everyday lives. In the project ‘Re-reading time-geography from a feminist perspective’, labour force mobility is an important way of analysing women's time-space use and identifying the constraints experienced when organising everyday life. We claim that time-geography provides a useful set of analytical tools that successfully collaborate with social science theory such as gender studies. Time-geography has been questioned by feminists as well as others. However, we argue that time-geography could provide gender studies with a close, empathic and micro-levelled interventional approach that makes obstacles and constraints due to spatio-temporal conditions visible and thereby changeable. In this paper we use results from previous research to prove that time-geography is an approach with several sets of useful concepts that describe and analyse women's everyday struggles and possibilities in an era in which mobility and transport have become undisputed factors of everyday life. In order to do this, time-geography needs to be read from a gendered standpoint. Although we are still in the formative stages of this re-reading of original texts and the formation of additional sets of concepts, the indications are that this work is worth pursuing and expanding.
Social research was, until recently, not very important in the transport and mobility domain. There was a bias towards technical studies, engineering studies and towards transport economics. Social science was essentially a fringe activity; psychology was used in traffic management, under the name “human factors”, and human geography focussed on the relationship between the characteristics of urban and rural space and the production of mobility. Sociological studies, cultural studies and governance studies were scarce in the transport and mobility domains.
This chapter explores long-term trends and potential trend conversions in the development of human spatial mobility, with special focus on the Swedish population. Consistent with observations of ‘peak car use’ reported from other countries, we find that the growth in everyday mobility has recently stagnated and declined. Mobility trends differ significantly between demographic groups, however. At a general level, there is a tendency towards (upward) mobility convergence between women and men and a shift in travel volumes from young to old age groups. The daily mobility of young women has been rather constant, but for men under 45 years old it has been reduced and in the youngest age group this decline is substantial. The observed mobility reductions among young indicate that car intensive lifestyles are not so strongly structurally determined. The implications for sustainability, partly depends on mobility development at higher time-spatial scales. The fact that intermittent transnational travel has grown rapidly, not least among the young age groups, suggests a substitution of international travel for national.
Several studies of relationships between urban land use and travel have shown correlations between daily-life travel behaviour and the location of the dwelling. However, in order to substantiate that residential location is a (contributory) cause of such differences, we must show the basic mechanisms by which the location of dwellings influences travel behaviour. Examples showing the rationales on which people base their frequency of participation in out-of-home activities, the location of these activities, the modes of travel used to reach these locations, and the routes followed make up important elements in this endeavour.
Drawing on a combination of register data and travel survey data, this research
explores changes in the accessibility to different amenities for the Swedish population between
1995 and 2005, as well as the reasons behind the changes: redistribution of either amenities or
the population. Overall, proximity has increased concerning most of the amenities during the
period. However, despite decreasing ‘potential’ distances, actual travel distances are growing
longer due to, for example, an increasing selectivity in preferences. An analysis of the accessibility
development for service amenities shows that restructuring within the service sector is
the main cause of the changes, and to a lesser extent population redistribution
Over the last two decades, a feminist critique of gender-blind transportation research and planning has generated a spate of research into ‘women and transport’. This article critically reviews this literature, and argues that it has come to focus on a relatively limited range of research problems (notably journey-to-work travel) at the expense of other relevant issues. An alternative approach is suggested which redefines the topic as ‘gender and daily mobility’ and incorporates it within a larger theoretical project investigating social and cultural geographies of mobility. Some areas of scholarship associated with the ‘cultural turn’ are explored to illustrate the potential for new approaches. The article then argues that future research on the topic must be based on a more systematic treatment of gender as a theoretical concept. A framework of analysis is outlined which identifies aspects of gender as a social category and symbolic code, and links it to aspects of daily mobility. The article outlines potential research questions identified through this analysis, and draws attention to a wide range of literature which may be brought to bear on the redefined topic area.
Objective:
This study examined recent trends in gender differences in the percentage of persons with driver's licenses as a function of age by comparing data from 2010 and 1995.
Method:
The analysis used data from the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Results:
There are 2 main findings. First, the percentage of males with a driver's license decreased from 1995 to 2010 for those younger than 60; for females a decrease occurred for those younger than 50. Second, in 2010, proportionally more males younger than 45 had a driver's license than was the case for females; the opposite relationship held for persons 45 and older.
Conclusions:
The observed gender trends in driver licensing will likely have major implications on the extent and nature of vehicle demand, energy consumption, and road safety.
Feminists have long known that gender and mobility are inseparable, influencing each other in profound and often subtle ways. Tackling complex societal problems, such as sustainability, will require improved understandings of the relationships between gender and mobility. In this essay I propose new approaches to the study of mobility and gender that will provide the knowledge base needed to inform policies on sustainable mobility. Early in the essay I survey the large literature on gender and mobility, teasing out what I see as two disparate strands of thinking that have remained badly disconnected from each other. One of these strands has informed understandings of how mobility shapes gender, while the other has examined how gender shapes mobility. Work on how mobility shapes gender has emphasized gender, to the neglect of mobility, whereas research on how gender shapes mobility has dealt with mobility in great detail and paid much less attention to gender. From this overview of the literature, I identify knowledge gaps that must be bridged if feminist research on gender and mobility is to assist in charting paths to sustainable mobility. I argue for the need to shift the research agenda so that future research will synthesize these two strands of thinking along three lines: (1) across ways of thinking about gender and mobility, (2) across quantitative and qualitative approaches, and (3) across places. In the final part of the essay I suggest how to achieve this synthesis by making geographic, social and cultural context central to our analyses.
Due to women's increased participation in the labour force, more and more family-households are now juggling paid labour and care-giving in space and time and do so in many different ways. Much research and policy about how households try to establish a satisfactory work-life balance singles out particular coping strategies, such as telecommuting or the mobilizing of informal help by relatives or friends. While insightful, foregrounding single strategies may oversimplify the complex reality of everyday life, in which people often skilfully weave together multiple coping strategies. As well, advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have further diversified the arsenal of possible coping strategies, but the academic literature has yet to verify whether ICT usage complements or substitutes the adoption of other coping strategies. Adopting a holistic quantitative approach this study assesses which combinations of coping strategies prevail and which role ICTs play in this regard among one- and dual-earner households in the Utrecht–Amersfoort–Hilversum area of the Netherlands. We also examine systematic variations in strategy combination by socio-demographics, ICT possession, affordability and skills, social network factors, employment and commute factors, spatial factors, lifestyle orientation and other factors. We identify several distinct combinations of strategies and find that ICT-related strategies are frequently adopted by highly educated employed parents in the Netherlands attempting to achieve a satisfying work-life balance and tend to complement other types of strategies. Which combinations of strategies have been adopted depends most strongly on the presence of young children, but also on employment factors and characteristics of the environment surrounding the dwelling and main workplace.
The attainment of a sustainable transportation system necessitates changes in the travel behavior of individuals. In this article, a descriptive presentation of travel survey data as well as attitude surveys tests the hypothesis that women are potentially more adaptable to a sustainable transportation system than men are. This is accomplished in four parts. First, results from Swedish travel survey data have found that men travel more kilometers per year, use the car more than women with regard to the number of kilometers traveled per day, and make more trips as the sole occupant of a car. Second, results from attitude surveys show that women are more environmentally concerned and express more criticism of automobility than men. Third, women are more positive towards proposals that reduce or eliminate the environmental impact of car use to a greater extent than men. Fourth, women express more willingness to reduce their use of the car than men. In general, while there are not large differences between men and women and their attitudes towards automobility, women consistently show more support of ecological issues and are more positive towards measures which entail reductions in car use, such as improving and expanding public transportation. Women were furthermore more prepared to participate in ecologically benign activities to a greater extent than men, which included reducing car use. Because of the tendencies shown in the empirical results presented here, women are judged to have more potential for accommodating an ecologically sustainable transportation system in Sweden than men are.
The space–time fixity constraint that binds activities to specific times and places has long been considered an important concept in transportation, feminist and communication geography. However, only few studies to date have directly examined differences in the space–time fixity of everyday activities, and the knowledge of how the context of activity participation affects space–time fixity is even more limited. Using space–time diary data from Columbus (Ohio, USA) and multilevel models, we investigate how variations in fixity levels are associated with activity type, other activity attributes, and the personal, household and geographical background of the person pursuing the activity. We consider whether these associations differ between men and women to understand better how space–time constraints operate differently in the everyday lives of men and women. The results suggest that context matters: fixity levels depend not just on activity type but also on when, where, for how long, with whom an activity is conducted, as well as on the background of the person initiating the activity, and some of these effects differ systematically between men and women. Implications of the findings for academic research and public policies are also discussed.
Few studies explicitly link transport and social exclusion and yet there is increasing pressure from policy-makers in the UK to do so. We propose a conceptual framework which links the two and examine a selection of indicators which might be used in assessing the outcomes of policies designed to use increased mobility to reduce exclusion. An illustrative example of the use of London Transport's CAPITAL model is demonstrated to assess access to regeneration sites. We conclude that increasing access to activities and services requires combating individuals' constraints at either end of their journey in addition to transport system improvements.
Bilsamhället: Ideologi, expertis och regelskapande i efterkrigstidens Sverige [the car society: Ideology, expertise and rule-making in post-war Sweden]
- Lundin
Are we there yet? Women and transport revisited
- Greed
Fördjupad uppföljning av de transportpolitiska målen [in-depth follow-up of the national transport policy goals]
- Trafikanalys
Vardagslivsperspektiv som planeringsredskap
- Åquist
Gendered activity spaces: trends over three decades in Germany
- Scheiner
En närmare stad [a closer city]
- Stockholmregionen
Sex changes everything: the recent narrowing and widening of travel differences by gender
- Crane
RVU Sverige - den nationella resvaneundersökningen 2015–2016 [the Swedish national travel survey 2015–2016]
- Trafikanalys
Men, women, and urban travel: The persistence of separate spheres
- Wachs