Walking mode choice across genders for purposes of work and shopping: A case study of an Iranian city

Exploring the factors affecting walking behavior has become an interesting issue among sustainable transportation researchers. However, walking studies which have examined gender in relation to trip purpose are limited. This research investigated and compared walking behaviors across genders for two different trip purposes, work and shopping trips in the city of Rasht, Iran. A series of behavioral choice models are introduced using a range of explanatory variables including individual, household, travel, and environmental characteristics. Results show that beside some similarities, the effect of different factors on walking behavior of males and females are different in the studied trip purposes. For example, results show that regardless of gender, having a car in household and also the presence of young children in household have a negative effect on the propensity to walk in both trip purposes, although there are some differences in terms of the significance level and magnitude of the coefficients. Results show that in shopping trips, the time of making the trip is a significant factor on the walking behavior of both groups of males and females. However, in trips to work the time of making a trip only affects females' decision to walk. According to the models developed, distance is a significant factor which diversely affects the propensity of walking. Results show that in trips to work, the marginal effect of distance is greater among females than males but in shopping trips it is the opposite. Reasons for differences between males and females in choosing walking for various trip purposes are discussed in details; and some issues are suggested for future research.