Despite the policy objective to reduce carbon emissions and efforts to build up sustainable public transport systems (European Commission, 2011) a lack of concordance between the macro decisions taken in transport policies and the everyday practices of people, makes the private car central in transport patterns; passenger cars accounted for 83. 3 % of inland passenger transport in the EU-28 in 2012 (Eurostat, 2014). Across Europe there is a diverse pattern of car use and car ownership - increasing in some areas and decreasing in others. While in countries like UK and Switzerland the share of the car in total inland passenger transport has fallen, in countries like Lithuania and Portugal this number had a significant raise (Eurostat, 2014). In the current context of crisis, households have a need to reduce mobility costs and yet the use of cars is growing due to an inadequate supply of public transport and too deeply established social patterns in which the possession of a car and automobility are a symbol of wealth and a social value in itself (Sales Oliveira, 2015). At the same time, socio demographic factors shape and are shaped by mobility and transport situations (Jones and Lucas, 2012). Gender is one important factor influencing and influenced by mobility as women seem to have a more sustainable attitude towards mobility, using more public transport and having a more ecological tendency. The question is whether this occurs due to traditional social roles for men and women and, in such a case, will this lead to women switching to the male pattern regarding driving and mobility, or, alternatively, will women, being more sensitive to sustainability, influence men to change. In this study we analyzed mobility patterns in two metropolis from a gender perspective, using a mix methodology approach in order to highlight gender mobility profiles, and to look for the connection between these and sustainability concerns in order to help debunk the automobility myth and promote soft mobility.

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