Investigating Women’s and Men’s Propensity to Use Traffic Information in a Developing Country

Abstract

Congestion problems and their vast negative effects on transportation networks are at the center of transportation providers’ attention. Considering the high costs associated with extending highway networks, using transportation demand management (TDM) strategies to alleviate congestion is a more cost-effective approach; however, planning and implementing TDM policies and strategies, in particular, necessitate careful examination and detailed analysis of commuter behavior and tendencies. Providing traffic condition information via radio to guide drivers through less congested paths is one common method of low-cost TDM in developing countries. The objective of this paper is to study the different behaviors between men and women in responding to traffic information that they receive by radio, as a part of advanced in-vehicle systems. In order to conduct this study, a random sample of drivers was surveyed to investigate their travel behaviors and responses while they were exposed to traffic information obtained through radio. Each gender response was studied separately to examine any possible differences in their propensity to use traffic information. In doing so, the ordered logit model was designated and NLOGIT package was used. The final results showed that age, driving time, listening to radio traffic information, preferred arrival time at workplace, and delay time variables in both men’s and women’s models were in common, but education and occupation were identified as significant in the females’ behavior only, and income and car ownership were significant for males. It is expected that appropriate decisions in recognition of these study results should be made to develop more effective traffic information for different users.