Free-floating car-sharing – where cars can be picked up and returned in different locations – is growing in popularity. But most users are college-educated men.
A new study from Germany found that women use free-floating car-sharing significantly less than men due to their higher burden of childcare and household duties. Free-floating car-sharing is where users can pick up and drop off the car anywhere instead of the same parking spot.
Although women tend to work at rates similar to men (in fact, Germany has the highest rate of working women in the European Union), they are disproportionately responsible for children and home management. This means that women’s daily travel patterns are often much different than men’s, according to the study by Ines Kawgan-Kagan and Mareike Popp.
Instead of heading home directly from work, women tend to “chain trips” together: hitting multiple destinations for different errands on one trip. The additional items women have to carry for these trips – groceries, child seats, and supplies for children, for example – make car-sharing difficult.
Kawgan-Kagan and Popp asked five women – three of whom have children – to carry GPS trackers for a week, and later interviewed them about their traveling experiences. They found that of the 292 trips tracked between the five women, only eight were un-chained.
On average, chained trips had about three to four distinct purposes, such as going to work, grocery shopping, meeting a friend, or picking up children. Below is a visualization of a chained-trip from one participant, with different keys representing the “additional goods” she had to carry and people she was responsible for during the trip.
Data visualization from the study.
Only two participants had experience with car-sharing: one who used it for un-chained trips to return home from work twice a week after her late shift, and another who used it every weekend before her recent car purchase. Before purchasing her car, this participant’s husband would pick up the car-share and drive it home to install car seats, instead of the entire family retrieving the car together.
In interviews, the participants discussed reasons why they do not use car-share more frequently. The researchers suggest that if car-share companies address these concerns, perhaps more women would use their services.
- Not enough nearby cars: Most participants stated that they would not use a car-share if the car was further than 500 meters (one-third of a mile) away because they have to walk with their children and carry child seats and other supplies for children.
- Car seats: Carrying and installing oftentimes multiple child seats every time you want to use a car isn’t feasible, said the participants.
- Clean-up and keeping things in the car: Multiple participants noted that they like the ability to leave things in the car and not having to clean-up after every trip.
Photo of a car2go in Washington, DC by Abe Landes for Mobility Lab.