Gendered Dynamic Choice Profiles: Costs of Transportation in Chicago for Women and Men

The aim of this study is to study gendered urban mobility through the framework of dynamic mode choice profiles. Women have historically faced differentiated conditions and expectations in the labor market, while conducting the majority of household labor. As a result, women face different costs of transportation for a number of reasons: their unpaid labor has traditionally been unaccounted for in the opportunity cost of time, they go to different destinations than men, have a lower on average income, and face a higher threat of public harassment and assault. This paper dives into transportation data modelling to empirically demonstrate how labor market factors and other gendered determinants lead to gendered differentiation in costs incurred across two modes of transportation: public transportation and rideshare. This paper calculates dynamic modal cost-distance trade-offs for specific times, routes, and geographic areas of interest in the Chicago region in order to estimate the transportation costs incurred by women and men by Chicago census tract. It finds that on average, women incur more costs for multiple modes of transportation than men. This paper draws upon literature discussing social exclusion and unpaid labor across genders and indices of opportunity cost. It models transportation cost outcomes while taking these indices into account; these indices have not been merged with cost outcomes in previous transportation literature. It finds that in general, public transportation is more costly for women than for men in Chicago.