Integrating Mobile Phone Data and Travel Survey to Understand Gender Gap in Ride-hailing

Keywords: Gender Gap, Social Inequality, Platform-based Mobility Service, Shared Economy, Transport Equity
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Improving transport systems to increase women's access to social opportunities and essential facilities has been a key initiative in transport to reduce gender inequality. Studies have examined the gendered travel needs and behaviors, as well as the mismatch between women's needs and transport services, from fragmentized travel, low affordability, and sensitization to safety. However, little attention has been given to the gender gap in the age of ride-hailing. Thus, this paper examines the nexus between gender and ride-hailing usage from the aspects of activity space and affordability. Two key questions are explored: dose women are dependent on ride-hailing? If ride-hailing serves women more/less, how does this gender difference in using ride-hailing occur? An innovative integration of big data and travel survey is developed to examine the gender gap in ride-hailing in Chengdu, China. The survey results and modelling analysis indicate that ride-hailing emerges as a flexible and on-demand travel mode addressing women’s demand for short and fragmentized travel needs in the Chinese context. The gender gap in capability to move is thus mitigated by ride-hailing to a certain extent. The findings call for a more nuanced and context-specific understanding of women’s differentiated travel needs, and then convert it into urban mobility visions and transport policy making, as equal access to life opportunities for both women and men is only achieved when the knowledge of gender disparities is fully understood.