Exploratory Analysis of Mobility of Care in Montreal, Canada

Abstract

“Mobility of care” refers to the daily travel required to complete care labor such as travel to the grocery store, or to escort children. Though past research has examined the distribution of individual types of household-serving travel, little research to date, especially in the North American context, has examined mobility of care which combines all travel required to fulfill a household’s care needs. This paper presents the results of an exploratory analysis of mobility of care drawing on the 2018 Montreal Origin–Destination Survey. Specifically, this paper explores who completes this type of travel and how this mobility is completed. Findings indicate that mobility of care comprises 28% of adults’ daily mobility. Further, women are found to complete more of this type of travel than men, especially women from lower-income households. The presence of children in the household further widens this gendered gap, though the number of children present does not alter this trend greatly. Mobility of care trips are shorter on average than other types of travel and are frequently completed as part of a trip-chain. Further, car use and walking are more frequently used for mobility of care than other types of travel, while the opposite is true for public transport and cycling. The use of public transport for mobility of care trips is greater amongst women than men, especially those living in lower-income households. Taken together, results highlight the importance for practitioners to explicitly address mobility of care in transport planning, and particularly in public transport planning.

Who Does Light Rail Serve? Examining Gendered Mobilities and Light-Rail Transit in Montreal, Canada

“…This could be the case if, for example, leisure activities are conducted closer to the household for women than for men, which could be partially explained by the greater burden placed on women for household responsibilities, hindering the possibility of long-distance leisure activities. The second explanation would be that women generally have fewer opportunities to conduct discretionary trips, because of enduring gender inequities, such as the uneven distribution of care mobilities ( 19 , 20 , 22 ).…”

“…However, there are large and statistically significant gaps in intention to use the REM for leisure, with women intending to use the REM far less for this purpose. These differential intentions for leisure and discretionary travel could be attributed to a variety of gender dynamics discussed in the mobilities literature, from the feminization of household labor, to differential care mobilities, to issues of unequal pay ( 11 , 13 , 15 , 19 , 22 ). Our study brings greater attention to the potential impact of these gender inequities on travel for leisure, meriting further research and analysis.…”

“…Feminist research has revealed that men tend to travel at a faster pace (relying more on car travel) than do women, whose mobilities have often been restricted to slower speeds, especially when traveling with children ( 17 ). Because gender-differentiated roles place a higher burden on women for family-care activities ( 18 – 21 ), women’s mobilities tend to be much more complex, often encompassing multiple travel modes ( 17 , 22 , 23 ). Although women’s trips are often shorter than men’s ( 12 ), on average, women make significantly more trips ( 24 , 25 ), and engage in more non-work-related travel ( 24 ).…”

“…At the same time, LRT investments of this scale will need to pay careful attention to local household realities and gender dynamics if they are to support social-equity goals. For example, recent quantitative research on travel patterns in Montreal has found that women disproportionately bear the burden for care mobilities, including such activities as grocery shopping, escorting children, and other forms of travel associated with unpaid care labor ( 19 ). Other studies have revealed that single-parent households and elderly individuals in Montreal have more geographically limited travel patterns ( 37 , 38 ).…”

Inferring Mobility of Care Travel Behavior From Transit Origin-Destination Data

“…Most of this difference in use can be attributed to the typical distribution of household responsibilities largely falling on women. Many of these studies are based on survey data and qualitative data, which shows evidence that women spend more time and energy using public transportation to conduct those typical gender-role defined tasks (2), referred to by the umbrella concept "mobility of care". The concept was introduced by Ines Sanchez de Madariaga in 2009 (3) who further hypothesized in 2013 that the total number of such trips could be close to that of employment-related mobility (3).…”