Rush hour commuting in the Netherlands: Gender-specific household activities and personal attitudes towards responsibility sharing

Abstract

Apart from work-hour commitments, rush hour commuting is dependent on household activities and responsibilities. It can also be gender specific when gender differences in performing household activities prevail. To that end, this study investigates gender differences in rush hour commuting in relation to daily household activities using data from TBO 2006 (Dutch Time Use Survey) and MON 2006 (National Travel Survey of the Netherlands). Two separate analyses were carried out, one for the morning rush hour and one for the afternoon rush hour. The analyses considered household activities such as childcare, child chauffeuring, household maintenance and shopping, and working from home. Additionally, we included personal attitudes towards sharing these activities between partners. We found that females in the Netherlands were more likely to commute during morning rush hours but less likely during afternoon rush hours. In terms of household activities, childcare and child chauffeuring before/after a commute led to a higher probability of commuting during morning rush hours. In the afternoon, only childcare activity was significant. As expected, working from home had a negative effect on rush hour commuting for both analyses. Furthermore, we found that personal attitudes regarding the sharing of household activities and responsibilities were of limited additional value.