This research addresses the critical, but understudied issue of gendered differences in travel behaviors in traditional societies, in general, and in the Arab world, in particular. To avoid known problems of data collection, a very careful and labor intensive surveying 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 while women disproportionately walk. Among the communities surveyed, transit provision was very low and had a correspondingly low mode share. This dearth seems to further impair womens travel. An extensive comparison of adult female and male tour frequency was undertaken using bivariate correlations and an ordered logit model. The most striking finding of this analysis was that a sixth of Arab women do not leave the house to make even a single tour compared to only a thirtieth of men. The more nuanced statistical analyses revealed that demographic factors affect tour frequency differently for women and men. Effective policy interventions must consider these gendered distinctions in order to best address the travel needs of the communities of the Arab world.
Samenvatting