The average U.S. male historically commutes further and longer than his female counterpart. Yet pivotal changes at home, as younger women especially increase their influence on household location and work decisions, and in the labor market, as women’s participation rates and profiles approach men’s, both strongly suggest that gender’s influence on travel might be changing as well. Further, the independent and interactive influence of other demographic factors, not least age and race, remain unclear.

This study analyzes national micro-data covering the past twenty years to examine both issues. We find sources of both convergence and divergence in travel behaviors by sex. The gender gap in commute length of older workers is growing, even while that of younger workers steadily closes. At the same time, racial differences in mode choice and commute times are becoming less pronounced, both by race and by gender. Thus, gendered elements of travel demand are indeed evolving, if not always in predictable directions.

About the Speaker

Randall Crane, Professor and Associate Director, Institute of Transportation Studies in the UCLA School of Public Affairs

Randall Crane is Professor and Associate Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies in the UCLA School of Public Affairs. Among other topics in urban development, he publishes extensively on the demographics of travel and land use/travel linkages. His Oxford University Press book, Travel by Design: The Influence of Urban Form on Travel (with Marlon Boarnet), is positioned as the reference monograph on the topic. Crane also served on the Transportation Research Board committee producing the 2005 report, Does the Built Environment Influence Physical Activity? Two books in progress include How Are We Housed? Urban Shelter Trends and Stories in the U.S.A., 1985-2009, and The Death and Life of Smart Growth (with Daniel Chatman).

While most of this work is domestic, his international project experience includes China, Guyana, Indonesia, Kenya, Thailand and Yemen, as well as Fulbright Professor at the Colegio de México in Mexico City. He spent 2008 as a visiting scholar at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and visiting fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Crane's PhD is from MIT and his research can be found on his blog.

Co-Sponsors

• CUNY Institute for Urban Systems 
• NYU Wagner Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management 
• Port Authority of New York and New Jersey 
• New Jersey Department of Transportation