Chapter 36: Gender, Transportation, and the Environment

Women’s increased mobility is an important cause for concern for those who wish to limit growth of transport emissions. The distances traveled by women have, over the past 50 years, tended to be different from and less than men’s, but in the last 20 years in Europe and the USA, women’s mobility patterns have begun to look increasingly like those of men. In the UK, women increased the annual distance they travel by 36% between 1975 and 1995, and as drivers they increased the distance they travel even further, by nearly 200%. Women in the USA are also driving more. Between 1969 and 1995, the average annual distance driven by women increased by 87.4%, which was a rate almost double that experienced by men (Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey, 1995). Demographic change and concerns about personal safety are also contributing to what can be characterized as a trend toward women’s mobility becoming more like men’s. A similar set of trends is found in developing countries, albeit in the context of women’s “travel poverty,” that is, inadequate access to choice of travel. In many countries in Asia and Africa, women need to travel more in order to gain greater access to markets (Fernando and Porter, 2002).