Transports Gender Divide

26 AUG 2021
People use our cities in different ways, and one of the differences is that men more often than women drive to work. If there is one car in the family, the man is often the driver of choice. This is obviously a stereotype and does not hold true for every family, everywhere - but as a basis for understanding the inequity of our transport system this is a useful starting point.

Bloomberg has a good video "QuickTake" primer on the issue - Infrastructure's Gender Divide - more properly I would focus on transportation.

More women walk, and take their children to school. Women are more likely to be travelling outside rush hour traffic. So in effect when roads are sized and designed for the peak hour - they are being designed for men.

An interestingly, where safe protected cycle infrastructure is provided, women out number men using the cycle network. This drops to 30% when decent infrastructure is not installed. So when we underfund cycleways we are disadvantaging the women who would otherwise be using them.

Watch the video - it is presented in a more compelling and comprehensive manner there.

PS - shout out to my friend Jess on her cargo bike in the masthead image.
By Hab3