Is There a Quiet Revolution in Women’s Travel? Revisiting the Gender Gap in Commuting

What kind of housing choices will families with two paid workers make? Will higher income families still tend to live further away from the central city, as is the current U.S. pattern, leaving one worker (presumably the male) with a longer home-to-work commute, the other worker (presumably the female) with the shorter worktrip commute? Or will two salaried worker households locate homes, or even jobs, to effect a compromise in worktrip lengths? Will such households continue to seek a certain type of housing stock (in the U.S. typically detached single family houses) in the childbearing years? Will the necessity of fulfilling domestic responsibilities in less disposable time create a demand for higher density living in places with mixed land uses in order to facilitate access to needed services? What impact will either employment or residential location decisions have on household allocation of travel resources; who will get the car, will a second car be purchased, who can or will use mass transit or join a car pool? What impact will the performance of household domestic and child care responsibilities have on the mode choice of either or both workers? . . . Whether it is the travel behavior of women workers which is in question, or possible long-run changes in the decision-making processes of the entire household, such concerns are central to the planning and development of responsive and equitable transportation systems. (pp. 347–348)