DSpace@MIT

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 98-103).One notable issue to deal with when capturing the individualism of travel behaviors is the gender difference. An extensive body of research has widely acknowledged that women and men exhibit quite different travel and activity patterns. For example, findings have suggested that women tend to invest more time to family-sustaining activities and that women make more family-sustaining trips yet fewer recreational trips. The primary focus of this study is to account for gender difference in travel behaviors. Particularly, the study attempts to understand how micro-level household dynamics and meso-level urban form may affect the activity patterns of women and men differently. To test the hypotheses and the prototype model, the city of Santiago de Chile is chosen. Although the empirical results from this study do not conclusively confirm that either household dynamics or urban from constitute solid reasons for the gender differences in activity patterns, increasing females' bargaining powers and improving accessibility still remain a viable approach to empower women in Santiago de Chile. Moreover, it is found that traditional travel demand models without incorporating the power relation are less responsive to the change in household dynamics between spouses and thus tend to underestimate the travel demand of a transitional society. This underestimation of travel demand would possibly affect the accessibility and mobility of the society adversely.