Breaking Gender Barriers in Transportation

Saima* (not her real name) wakes up at 04h30 to drop her child at a family member’s house.

The child joins other youngsters at around 06h30 to walk to school. Saima then catches a mini bus at the Siyanda bus station, heading to Kleine Kuppe where she is employed as a domestic worker.

Saima and many other women in the capital travel to work using the bus service or taxis to reach their destination as compared to men.

Travel patterns for women and girls differ from those of their male counterparts. Many if not most women make multiple stops while commuting.

This includes travelling for work, running errands, collecting and dropping children from school, shopping, and visiting family members.

Many women are breadwinners in their households and depend on public transport to access economic activities in order to enhance their livelihood.

The sheer pace of urbanisation has forced many urban dwellers to live in the informal settlements which are often on the outskirts of the city.

THREATS

Women tend to make more and shorter trips and carry a significantly higher exposure to crime-related activities.

Worldwide, women face real and perceived threats of assault, harassment and gender-based violence while navigating their daily travels.

Women are affected while using public transport. This includes travelling to and from taxi ranks and bus stations, while waiting for the vehicle and in the vehicle.

Worldwide, transport is not considered gender neutral.

Women represent the largest share of public transport users, yet face numerous barriers that limit their mobility.

Women are increasingly becoming more central to their countries’ economies.

For this reason, addressing their transportation needs is essential in promoting economic growth and prosperity.

Identifying barriers in transportation will help create an opportunity for cities to create more equitable economic systems, infrastructure and policy changes that can affect mobility for women.

• Transport policies should be more responsive to women’s needs. This requires a structured approach in understanding their needs, identifying instruments to address the needs, and analysing the cost and benefits of such instruments.

Women should be represented at each level of transport investment planning and the design process.

Transport planning and design needs to pay more attention to gender. For example, many women highlight safety issues when waiting at bus stops or taxi ranks, hence the importance of placing bus stops at places with high activity and ensuring there is proper lighting at such stops.

ACCESSIBILITY

• Actions such as improving accessibility to bus stops, reducing fares for low-income groups, deploying law enforcement officers and improving street lights on certain routes, and promoting safer paths to and from transport hubs are initiatives that can improve safety.

• Collecting data and identifying gender gaps in national development and transport strategies is essential, incorporating spatial information such as trip purposes, age, and socio economic status based on gender can help set a baseline for data collection.

Such data can develop a better understanding of travel patterns by gender and could potentially lead to an inclusive sustainable mobility from a gender perspective.

• Increasing women’s representation in leadership positions can bring benefits such as creativity, diversity, and a unique perspective in planning more equitable transport systems.

• Fostering greater diversity in the workforce to help government, local authorities, public transport unions and other implementing bodies to become more aware and more sensitive to issues faced by women, girls, and people of minority genders.

MAINSTREAMING

Increasing the proportion of women in the transport workforce improves service quality and efficiency by better reflecting diverse passenger needs.

A combination of immediate and medium-term strategies can be adopted to enhance diversity across organisations.

Gender mainstreaming in the transport sector is critical for business and economic growth for all.

Transport systems increase women’s mobility by enabling them to travel safely and independently.

The mainstreaming of gender promotes the inclusion of women’s voices and perspectives in transport planning, ensuring an equitable transport system.

• Prisca Mayumbelo is a transport and logistics professional, employed in the urban and transport planning department at the City of Windhoek. She is the chairperson of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. The views expressed in this article are written in her personal capacity

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