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New Report Finds Sprawl Means More Drive Time, Less Quality Time;
Mom's Racking Up Most Miles on Errands, Playing Chauffeur

For mothers, time behind the wheel is on the rise, forcing other activities - from playing with children to getting a good night's sleep - to take a backseat to chauffeuring and running errands. A new report from the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP), out just in time for Mother's Day, discusses how sprawl is increasing the drive time for all Americans, with mothers bearing the brunt of this burden.

High Mileage Moms finds a significant increase in the amount of time women spend on the road and the number of stops they make along the way. Mothers spend over an hour a day driving - almost 17 days per year behind the wheel. Moms spend more time driving than the average parent spends dressing, bathing and feeding a child. As communities spread further apart, these numbers are likely to grow.

According to the study:

• In five years, Americans' drive time increased by more than 40 hours.
• Two-thirds of all trips to shuttle others around are made by women.
• The majority of women (61 percent), make at least one stop after work, 30 percent make two stops or more. Just 46 percent of men make a stop on the way home.
• Whether working or not, mothers with school-aged children make 20 percent more trips than the average woman and 21 percent more trips than the average man.
• Nearly half of these trips - 46 percent - are for chauffeuring and other errands.

"Women have become the bus drivers of the 1990s," says STPP Executive Director Roy Kienitz. "Our communities are designed so people who don't drive, primarily children and the elderly, must be chauffeured everywhere they need to go, whether it's to school, the park or the doctor's office. As a result, women - especially mothers - are literally getting the run-around."

The report points to neighborhoods with few safe sidewalks or bike paths and poor bus or train service as a primary contributor to increasing time spent behind the wheel. Sprawling communities are compounding the problem by adding more distance between the places people need to go - work, shops, pharmacies, dry cleaners, gyms, and daycare centers.

"We're not doing a very good job meeting women's needs," says Kienitz."Moms can get back some of their time if we design out neighborhoods so that shops and other services are closer together and served by a train or bus."

The report points to innovative programs to reduce mom's travel, including day care centers at subway stations in Washington, DC and a child care center near a rail stop in San, Jose, California that offers family dinners to go, dry cleaning and children's hair cuts.

Surface Transportation Policy Project is a coalition of over 200 environmental and community organizations working for a balanced transportation policy that protects the environment, promotes social equity and makes communities more livable. For additional copies of the report, log on to www.transact.org or contact Barbara McCann at STPP, 202/466-2636.