When Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, How Do They Go? A Mixed Methods Study of Nighttime Leisure Travel in Boston

Abstract

When we think of urban living and its depictions in popular culture, many shows and movies depict characters in leisure activities, such as meeting friends, going on dates or pursuing hobbies, often at night. Despite the prominence of the night as a key theme in depictions of urban leisure, transportation planners have rarely focused on nighttime leisure travel as an area of intensive study beyond the lens of safety. This thesis investigates the nighttime leisure travel patterns of residents and students in Greater Boston through statistical analysis and data sculpture with a focus on how these vary by gender. To create a baseline understanding of travel patterns, I focused on the Boston Metropolitan Area and used the most recent version of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Household Travel Survey from 2011. I limited my analysis to a fixed set of leisure activities during a fixed nighttime period to understand associated travel behaviors. I also implemented a data sculpture method to investigate how a subset of MIT students made decisions around their travel modes. I found that women travelled differently from men, in that they spent more time walking and were more likely to be passengers in a car. In contrast, men were more likely to be behind the wheel and travel further. Both men and women showed a preference for walking over all other modes when leaving an activity. Together, these findings indicate that nighttime leisure travel is not a simple extension of daytime patterns. To better design nighttime transportation that accommodates gender differences, planners need to respond to the special qualities of the city after dark.