TR News - Transportation Research Board

personal characteristics also matters. Yet women’sincreased participation in the workforce and theirincreased orientation to careers in their educationand their work plans—a so-called “quiet revolution”—mightbe expected to reduce the gender gapfor commutes. Recent data for San Francisco, California,and for Quebec City in Canada indicate thatthe gap is closing for some groups of men andwomen.Data from a national survey that covers the pasttwo decades also can be applied. Every 2 years, theCensus Bureau conducts the American Housing Survey(AHS) for the U.S. Department of Housing andUrban Development. Residents of many of the same50,000 housing structures, considered nationallyrepresentative, have been sampled for each surveysince 1985, and details have been gathered on theindividuals. This has produced cross-sectional databy year and a longitudinal panel over time. The AHSasks basic questions about the commute trip, includingthe mode used, the distance traveled, and thetravel time. Some interesting trends emerge from theAHS commute data for 1985 to 2005.Distances and Travel TimeThe AHS data indicate that all commutes are lengtheningon average, with travel distances increasing 1percent per year, and travel times increasing at abouthalf that rate. From 1985 to 2005, the commute distancefor women increased by 30 percent, to 11.8miles; and the commute distance for men increasedby 22 percent, to 14.1 miles (Figure 1, below). Thissuggests that the gender gap for commute trip lengthis converging, although slowly.The average travel time for a commute, however,increased slightly more for men than for women overthe two decades recorded by the survey. The averagetravel time for women’s commutes increased approximately9 percent, to 21.1 minutes; the average traveltime for men’s commutes increased approximately 10percent, to 23.5 minutes.Gender and RaceDifferences between travelers cannot be reduced togender only—the interactions of other demographicfactors should be examined also and can prove criticalover time. An examination of the growth in distancecommuted in personal vehicles, by gender andrace, reveals that the commute distance of whitemales changed little over the two decades, but commutedistance for Hispanic women, black females,and Hispanic males increased. The details of thesepatterns remain understudied, and the factors thatinfluence the patterns need more research.The AHS data on mode use for one-way commutetravel indicate that men and women havehigher average travel times on public transit. Thetravel times by transit for men and women, however,are similar, suggesting less of a gender gap amongtransit riders than among commuters using personalvehicles.Examining mode split by gender and race indicatesthat white males and females have low levels oftransit use on commute trips. Blacks have the highestuse of transit, yet from 1985 to 2005, use by blackwomen declined dramatically, by approximately 50percent. Transit use by black males also declined,Women and a childwaiting at a Portland,Oregon, bus stop. Traveltimes on public transitare similar for men andwomen.From 1985 to 2005, theuse of transit by blackwomen declined byapproximately 50percent.PHOTO: LAURA SANDT15131011.69.1WomenMen12.810.91985 1995 200514.111.8FIGURE 1 Commute distances for women and men,1985–2005 (in miles).TR NEWS 264 SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 200911