A number of municipalities in Sweden have evaluated their practice of first plowing major highways, then large surface streets and finally, side streets, walkways and bike paths. Pretty typical. But then they took a closer look at the data.
What they found was that women had markedly different driving patterns than men and were also much more likely to walk, often with children in tow, along snowy sidewalks. The women were much more likely to drive on the side streets getting children to and from school or daycare, running household errands and checking on elderly family members, then the men who typically drove on large surface streets to major employment areas and back home.