Exploratory Analysis of Mobility of Care in Montreal, Canada

“Mobility of care” refers to the daily travel required to complete care labor such as travel to the grocery store, or to escort children. Though past research has examined the distribution of individual types of household-serving travel, little research to date, especially in the North American context, has examined mobility of care which combines all travel required to fulfill a household’s care needs. This paper presents the results of an exploratory analysis of mobility of care drawing on the 2018 Montreal Origin–Destination Survey. Specifically, this paper explores who completes this type of travel and how this mobility is completed. Findings indicate that mobility of care comprises 28% of adults’ daily mobility. Further, women are found to complete more of this type of travel than men, especially women from lower-income households. The presence of children in the household further widens this gendered gap, though the number of children present does not alter this trend greatly. Mobility of care trips are shorter on average than other types of travel and are frequently completed as part of a trip-chain. Further, car use and walking are more frequently used for mobility of care than other types of travel, while the opposite is true for public transport and cycling. The use of public transport for mobility of care trips is greater amongst women than men, especially those living in lower-income households. Taken together, results highlight the importance for practitioners to explicitly address mobility of care in transport planning, and particularly in public transport planning.