Gender and individual space-time accessibility: A GIS-based geocomputational approach

This study aims to examine gendered accessibility experiences in space and time, through developing enhanced space-time accessibility measures with the use of geographic information systems (GIS). Various situations in which gender differences in accessibility experiences manifest will be examined using the activity/travel diary data set of Portland, Oregon.; This study provides a GIS-based geocomputational algorithm in order to enhance space-time accessibility measures with more rigorous representation of the temporal and spatial characteristics of urban opportunities (e.g. their geographical distribution and opening hours) and human activity-travel behavior (e.g. delay times, minimum activity participation time, and maximum travel time threshold). Furthermore, the proposed method takes into account the possible duration at each activity location given its opening hours and the effect of transport network, in addition to the consideration of the number and size of opportunities.; The results showed that, in addition to women's lower accessibility in absolute terms, women's temporal autonomy was strictly entrapped at only a particular time of day (in the late afternoon, specifically) regardless of employment status. Furthermore, the study has examined gender differences in determinants of accessibility and in travel/location activity contexts where people participate in discretionary activities. Women's lower levels of accessibility than men were largely due to additional constraints: household responsibilities. Compared to men, the level of availability of urban opportunities near home was found to be crucial in determining accessibility. In addition, people tend to enjoy the space-time autonomy in the work-to-home travel situation, and so the workplace and home are the most central locations of accessibility, as an origin and a destination. The importance of other locations is relatively higher for women than for men. Women have more household work, and so need to be at home more. Therefore, women's need to be attached to home renders their accessibility more sensitive to the availability of local urban opportunities.; In summary, women and men do experience accessibility differently in space and time. These findings suggest that gendered importance of locations and timings, and accessibility context in travel/activity sequences needs to be explicitly acknowledged to better understand the gender gap in access to urban opportunities.