Household Demographic Composition, Community Design, and Travel Behaviour: An Analysis of Motor Vehicle Use in Germany

Abstract

This study explores the determinants of car use in Germany by analyzing a panel of travel-diary data collected between the years 1994 and 2001. The analysis is conducted against the backdrop of two questions: Do women have more constrained access to the car than men, and if so, how is this constrained access mitigated or exacerbated by other determinants of car use such as urban form, socioeconomic circumstance, and the demographic composition of the household? A cross-cutting issue is whether the existence of gender discrepancies in car use reflects the outcome of objective reasoning or patriarchal constraints. We pursue these questions by estimating a discrete choice model of the determinants of car utilization on weekdays. While we find that women are characterized by a lower likelihood of car use than men, the magnitude of the discrepancy is not as great as has been suggested elsewhere in the literature. The presence of children is found to play the strongest role in reducing disparities between men and women with respect to car use, while urban form variables are generally play an insignificant role. We conclude that although car use decisions may be made on the basis of objective reasoning, this reasoning often emerges from patriarchal constraints that dictate traditional gender roles.