Understanding Gender, Income and Travel Behavior in Casablanca City – Morocco

2.1. Gender-Based (Dis) Similarities in Mobility Patterns

Previous research work has demonstrated that the output of one study with respect to gendered variations in mobility patterns cannot be generalized to another geographical and/or social context as they remain inextricably intertwined to the context where they have been identified [11]. However, looking into existing literature provides a broad and useful understanding of gender and transport issues necessary for our case study.

Studies show that females make fewer work trips while more health care and social connections related trips, and are more reliant on public transport than men [12-14]. Women evolve in a smaller spatial range as they travel more to places proximal to their houses and neighborhoods, even in rich countries [15]. Women also tend to engage in more complex trip structures with multiple stops to carry out tasks as picking up children from the school [16-18]. These gendered differentials are, mostly, due to the distribution of the roles in the household that still attribute household responsibilities and child care tasks to women [19-21]. Some studies have explored the impact of household structure on travel patterns, especially the breadwinner status in the USA [8, 22]. Social roles are significant in explaining some of the mobility characteristics in the Pakistani context, for instance, Adeel [23] demonstrated that the mobility level of men increases with marriage and age compared to women whose mobility level decreases with the same parameters.

Moreover, differences in access level to private motorized transport influence destination choices, distances traveled and mode choice [18, 24]. For example, in Rajkot-India, men make more trips as car drivers than females [25], whereas in Great Britain, women are more likely to use cars to go to work than their male counterparts [26]. This same trend is observed in Pakistan, where women use cars more often as transport mode when accessible [23].

Matsishita [27] points out that men of higher-income groups in Japan are more involved in travel-related physical activity. In Geneva, the study by DePalma and Rochat [28], highlighted the insignificance of income impact on mode choice but showed its influence on the number of cars owned by the household. In Vishakhapatam, India, males travel longer distances than females across all the SEWS - socio-economic wellbeing score-groups [11]. In Rajkot, India, women tend to be less mobile as the family income increases in contrast with men whose trip rates increase with income. This can be explained by women dropping out of the labor market with the increase in the household income, resulting in no need for them to make daily trips [25].

The literature also highlights personal safety and security as a factor affecting women's travel mode choice. Due to their concerns related to safety and fear of crime in the case of public transit, studies have found that women, compared to men, are more likely to avoid walking after dark [29, 30], and prefer to drive or take a taxi rather than walk or use public transit [31-33]. Research shows that factors, such as darkness, poor lighting and isolation, contribute more to women’s fear of crime in their communities, as well as regarding public transit [31, 34-36]. Women often mention lonely bus stops, unstaffed stations and pedestrian subways among the places that cause them to fear [37]. In addition, they report higher perceived insecurity while walking at night in parks and subways, and when waiting at bus stops or platforms in isolated areas [33]. These factors can lead women to take more inconvenient routes or less frequent trips in order to avoid fear-causing situations [38].

2.2. Gender and Transport in Casablanca

The 2011 World Bank Report on Gender and Transport in MENA Region [39] stresses out that the frequently used transport modes vary across gender and different socio-economic classes in Casablanca, as men and women of high-income classes living near the city center enjoy better transport options whereas the lowest income groups living in the fringe of the city have limited transport access, which reduces their set of possible education and employment opportunities.

The remainder of this section will highlight and analyze the main conclusions of this report.

Walking is the most important travel mode across the city, particularly for the middle-income and lower-income groups, and residents of the urban periphery. However, while walking does not fall under any specific socially constructed restriction for women, they are still advised against walking long distances due to the high risks of exposition to verbal or physical harassment and theft. Security is, in fact, one of the main challenges and constraints faced by women in Casablanca, not only when walking but also while using the different public transport modes. Many women, while traveling, do not consider their best options in terms of transport modes and take the first one that arrives to avoid the wait that can increase the risk of harassment on the street. In areas that are poorly served by public transport, women often prefer to stop their job search rather than being subject to public transport unreliability. Buses are one of the main public transport modes in Casablanca, however, this mode has failed to offer a safe environment for women to accomplish their trips. As a matter of fact, buses are often overcrowded and constitute spaces where harassment and theft incidents are frequent. Consequently, when taxis are available and can be afforded, they are women’s first choice as they offer greater security; taxis are constrained with respect to the maximum number of passengers, that is allowed by authorities, and clients can report any misconduct to the taxi company or directly to the police. The lack of street lighting is also a serious problem in Casablanca, especially in the periphery, so women feel unsafe conducting any trips after the dark.

In Casablanca, where women are not provided safe and reliable transport, their access to health, education and employment opportunities is hindered; 60% of the women interviewed for the World Bank Report on Gender and Transport in MENA Region [39] consider that the lack of transport has reduced their ability to improve their income; 52% feel that poor transport prevents them from reaching labor pools, and 47% believe it negatively impacts their careers. Poor access to transport modes is a barrier to achieving autonomy for 80% of interviewed women. The Report's findings also point out that transport-related issues negatively impact access to the main and basic services, such as health and education, for both men and women, with men however not burdened as heavily as women.

With regard to all the issues laid down above, this World Bank study recommends to opt for more gender-informed policies and regulations and to use gender-inclusive participatory approaches for a better understanding of women's needs and actual experiences in terms of mobility.

This paper aims to bring to the light gender-based mobility dissimilarities in Casablanca, to examine how they vary across income groups, and to explain the data patterns. However, this study does not aim to identify every issue that could constraint women's mobility in the city.

3.1. Introducing Casablanca City

The city of Casablanca is located on the Atlantic coast, in the Central West of Morocco. It is the most economically developed city in the country, contributing to 19,2% of the GDP. With a population of 4.2 million in 2014, the demographic growth has registered a clear shift from the city center to its periphery in the last decade, with both a decrease of the hyper centre population and strong demographic growth in the inner-city suburbs. The average city density is 3700 persons per sq km, with central districts more populated than their peripheral counterparts even if the most marked demographic growth is registered in the city-suburban fringe.

In 2014, the active population reached 1, 4 million with an unemployment rate of 11, 3% (slightly higher than the national score of 9, 9%).

Public urban transport in Casablanca suffers from inefficiency and several quality and organizational issues. To meet the growing demand for mobility, policies promoting the use of private cars (such as simplified car loans processes) have been adopted. They have led to a rapid and uncontrolled increase in car ownership in the last decade that has prompted the emergence of congestion-related problems (113 car /1000 inhabitants). Congestion is not the only significant concern in the city, poor road safety is one as well. With 18,800 incidents, including 333 engendering fatalities, 978 serious injuries, as well as 24,250 slight injuries in 2017, Casablanca is leading the score in Morocco in terms of traffic accidents.

Intermodal interoperability is almost inexistent; every operator runs its own lines with no regard to complementarity with other modes or operators. The lack of intermodal transport scheme challenges the implementation of a fare integration system that would refrain the users to combine inefficiently different passes, tickets and fares for the same trip. Despite the relatively low fares of public transport in Casablanca, they can be unaffordable for low-income groups as they have to combine different modes that are not integrated in terms of fares. Another intermodal interoperability-related issue is uncoordinated schedules for the different transport modes and ineffective connections when they exist; commuters have to use individual or shared taxis, park their cars in distant parking areas, and/or walk increasingly long distances to the connection point. Real-time passenger information systems are also lacking, especially for buses, denying timely and accurate information to potential users in order to organize their trips.

Transport spatial coverage and availability is a rising problem in suburban areas, with more people settling in the periphery where the housing is more affordable. Consequently, transport system accessibility with all its components needs to be greatly improved.

Inadequate access to public transport disproportionately affects the different groups of the society; it impedes access to employment, education and health services for groups that are the most negatively impacted, such as people with low-income, women, and individuals with disabilities.

Gender issues have also become increasingly relevant with the rise of the number of employed women that use public urban transport to reach their jobs and the different city amenities.

To alleviate some of the issues noted above, the city has commissioned two tramlines that entered into service in 2012 and 2019, respectively; however, most women still experience some constraints, particularly in terms of safety, which obstruct their access to basic social services, limit their labor force participation, and potentially reduce their income, a situation that needs to be addressed by adequate transport policies.

5.1. Gender Differences in Mobility

Our analysis of the Metropolitan Travel Survey of Casablanca shows that gender mobility differences are significant and wide. Women make nearly 30% less trips on average (1, 81) than men (2, 5). Their average trip duration (19, 70 min) is slightly less than men (25, 4 min). Kruskal-Wallis H-test results confirm significant gender differences in daily trip rate (statistic=1684.3809845702758, p-value=0.0) and trip average duration (statistic=1299.3776429620177, p-value=1.5433650133833618e-284)

In terms of mode choice, nearly 62% of trips in Casablanca are performed by walking. We note that female share of walking is almost equivalent to male’s (69, 79% vs. 69, 66%). We also observed that public transport use is equivalent among both genders (7, 31% for males and 7, 05% for females). Both sexes have a similar share of private car-based trips (12, 38% vs. 12, and 64%). Chi square test confirms that gender distribution and mode choice are independent for all modes.

In terms of purpose from the trip, women are less likely to travel for work (7,81%) compared to males (45,42%). Work-related trips account for 31,76% of the total trips. 30% of women trips are more likely to be carried for other purposes, like grocery shopping, bank or doctor appointment, leisure and visiting friends (Table 2).

85,44% of grocery shopping trips and 69,59% doctor and bank appointments trips are performed by females, whereas 89,76% of work-related trips are performed by males (Table 3). This can be explained by household tasks division where women carry out more household maintenance tasks and men are more likely to be breadwinners, as confirmed by the 2011 national timetable survey.

5.2. Income Influence on Gendered Travel Behavior

Our Casablanca data show that there is gender difference in terms of mobility on the whole as well as across income categories. Despite that women’s average trip rate is less than men, the differentiation is not homogenous across income groups (Table 4 and Fig. 1).

Women who have not declared to have any income perform 1,81 trips/day vs. 2,41 for men belonging to the same category. This trip rate jumps to 2,71 and 3,55 for women belonging to high and very high-income categories. For these same categories, men are less mobile than women. In fact, women belonging to high-income categories are more likely to work outside the house as well as to accomplish household-related trips, like groceries or accompanying children to schools; they are expected to be more mobile than men. This high trip rate drops for women with middle income and accounts for 2,18 for category E women. We remark that for category E, women and men have similar trip rates.

In Casablanca, there is no marked difference in modal choice by gender on the whole, but there are notable gender differences across income groups. First, for both males and females, the walking share increases with the decrease in the income; the inverse occurs for private car share, as when income increases, the private car usealso increases. Private car use rate is similar between men and women overall, when it is accessible, across the income groups and within the same income group. Public transport is avoided by women if they afford the use of a private car; women from A & B income groups did not report to travel by public transport (Table 5).

Fig. (2) shows the significant effect of gender and income on the average trip duration. Concerning women, this duration increases with a decrease in the income for the high- and middle-income categories, and it drops as the income falls for the lowest income classes. However, for men, the trip duration decreases with the increase in the income (from 43,86 min for Cat A to 18,67 min for the lowest income cat). Men have been observed to travel more minutes than women in the highest income category A (by 18 minutes), however, they make less trips (Fig. 2).

Exclusive of the no-income category, the share of work trips of both men and women in income Category B, C1 and C2 is similarly distributed. However, we notice that for the highest income category, there is a significant gender difference in terms of work trip share, with men performing more work trips (67% for men vs. 25% for women), and also for the lowest income groups D and E, where women perform the most work trips (73% vs. 42% for men). Women of the no income category and the highest income category show similar share of visiting relatives and friends related trips (11,7%, 12,5%), and it displays the highest share across all income categories and genders. Men’s leisure activities related trip share is higher than women within all income categories (Table 6).