Exploring Women Travel Behaviour in the Region of Žilina from Large Scale Mobility Survey

Women and men often do not experience equal mobility opportunities. Increasingly, gender is being recognized to play a significant role in transport planning, particularly for addressing individual mobility needs in urban and rural areas. Previous studies have shown that transport policy and mobility planning are better suited to men’s activities and mobility needs, while women experience the transport system differently than men in terms of accessibility, safety and security. To gain an in-depth understanding of women travel patterns in their daily activities, this paper investigates the factors that influence women’s decisions between activity participation and choice of transport mode through analysis of mobility behaviour data gathered from 6000 households by Žilina self-governing region between 2013 and 2016. The results of this analysis provide valuable insights about the possible causal relation among socio-demographics, activity participation characteristics and daily travel mode choice of female and male travellers in the studied cities, which could be incorporated into more gender sensitive designs in mobility planning and travel demand modelling. Furthermore, the outcomes of this study can help decision makers, local and regional authorities and transport companies by raising awareness and providing support for (1) forming sustainable policies to overcome community mobility and accessibility challenges and (2) bringing more gender equality in the region of Žilina by changing traditional transport functionalities and providing more equitable provision of transport systems, particularly in public transport and active modes (non-motorised transport).