Gender Disparity in Travel Demand Management of University Students and Employees

Abstract

The Earn-a-Bike (EAB) program is a travel demand management (TDM) effort at the University of Louisville. It provides a $400 bike shop voucher for students and university employees to forgo their parking permits for two years. This research explores this program to answer three questions: Does gender affect people’s willingness to participate in a TDM program such as the EAB? Does gender have different impacts on population segments at different life stages? How does a suburbanized spatial structure interact with gender and affect people’s willingness to participate in the EAB program? The findings suggest that females are generally less willing to participate in the EAB program. However, when the student and faculty/staff populations are separated, this gender effect became insignificant for the student population, but became stronger for the faculty/staff population. Furthermore, females in suburban areas are less likely than males to participate in the program.