Women’s Time Use with ICT and Physical Travel in Greek Urban and Rural Areas

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) can contribute to the modification and development of new patterns of behaviour by individuals in their everyday lives. The implementation of e-activities such as teleworking, tele-education or tele-shopping cut down the need for physical mobility thus enabling individuals to manage and tailor their time to their optimum advantage. On the other hand, e- activities can be complementary to physical activities or can even bring up derived demand for travel for new activities. This paper seeks to obtain more insight into how women in Greece allocate their time during, a typical weekday/week to various types of activities while, it explores the role of ICT during the activities being conducted. A computerized telephone (CATI) survey took place in 2009 and involved the collection of 500 questionnaires. The analysis of the data collected shows that women living in less favourable regions, prefer to use traditional means of transport for their usual activities, mainly due to their limited familiarity with the use of computers and to the smoother traffic conditions. Moreover, women with children tend to use e-means for longer periods, when executing specific activities during a typical weekday/week. The future scenarios show that under certain conditions (i.e. ICT accessibility, traffic conditions, governmental incentives) the activity may bring more utility if carried out via ICT than by physical travel. For some women, “virtual mobility” offers attractive advantages in the context of much of their administrative personal business (administrative chores, financial transactions, comparison shopping, etc.), some of their retail trips and perhaps their daily commute.