Gender and Travel Behavior in Two Arab Communities in Israel

Abstract

This research addresses the critical but understudied issue of gender differences in travel behaviors in traditional societies, in general, and in the Arab world, in particular. To avoid known problems of data collection, a careful and labor-intensive survey process was undertaken in two Arab communities in northern Israel. The data gathered through this process were analyzed by a variety of statistical means to reveal that rather stark gender distinctions in travel behavior exist. On the whole, men make more tours, spend more time traveling, make more stops, and spend more time at activities at those stops than women. Men disproportionately travel by private vehicle modes, whereas women disproportionately walk. In the communities surveyed, the amount of transit provided was low and had a correspondingly low mode share. This dearth of transit seems to impair women's travel further. An extensive comparison of adult female and male tour frequencies was undertaken by using bivariate correlations and an ordered logit model. The most striking finding of this analysis was that 1/6th of Arab women do not leave the house to make even a single tour, whereas this proportion is 1/30th for men. The more nuanced statistical analyses revealed that demographic factors affect tour frequency differently for women and men. Effective policy interventions must consider these gender distinctions to address in the best way possible the travel needs of individuals in communities in the Arab world.

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