On the Role of Gender as a Determinant of Car Use: Evidence from Germany

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 community design, socioeconomic circumstances, 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 influenced by several intervening variables including age, the number of children, and the time spent in out-of-household activities. The presence of children, in particular, is found to play a significant role in reducing disparities between men and women with respect to car use, while urban form variables 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.