Long-Distance Travel by Women: Results from the 1995 American Travel Survey

Research on women’s mobility has focused mostly on local travel, partly as a result of data availability. Women’s long-distance travel, defined as trips over 161 km (100 mi) one way, is examined, with data from the 1995 American Travel Survey (ATS). Conducted for the Bureau of Transportation Statistics by the Bureau of the Census, the ATS collected information on the origin, destination, volume, and characteristics of long-distance travel from 80,000 households in the United States. Data are presented on women’s long-distance travel disaggregated by, among other things, trip purpose, trip mode, age, race/ethnicity, and household type. Where possible and appropriate, ATS data are compared with data from 1977, the last time such a survey was conducted. The data show women made fewer long-distance trips than men in 1995 and the disparity between the sexes is virtually unchanged since 1977. About 80 percent of the difference in trip making results from men taking more than twice the number of business trips as women, despite women’s business travel having grown faster than men’s over the past 18 years. Most of the rest of the difference results from men’s greater trip making for outdoor recreation. Differences in long-distance travel behavior can be explained, to a degree, by women’s lower income, lower employment rates, and lower driver’s licensing rate, and because women are more likely to be the primary caregivers for children whether they work outside of the home or not.