Meaningful change requires new kinds of cooperation and engagement and, let\u2019s face it, a certain rebalancing of economic, social, and environmental priorities. Now, more than ever, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a roadmap for this recalibration. Yet for many reasons, we see transport and planning professionals struggle to translate the SDGs into specific, community-based change. Despite the \u2018disruption\u2019 and sex appeal of new mobility and Mobility as a Service, these tech-driven innovations are not getting to the heart of the issue. So, how do <\/em>we bridge this gap between aspiration and real sustainable local living?<\/p>\n Transport Infrastructure Ireland, one of Ireland\u2019s key national transport agencies, recently issued a brave and useful answer \u2013 study women\u2019s travel needs. Why? Because historically women have lived and moved more locally, especially if they have children. This is because gender is the single biggest organizing feature worldwide, and a major factor in travel behavior (see <\/span>ITF work on Gender in Transport | ITF (itf-oecd.org)<\/a>). Women do the large majority of local trips for the <\/span>purposes of caring for and educating others<\/a>. They play a profound role in shaping intergenerational mobility choices. Their mobility needs \u2013 often centered around local safety, health , and community facilities \u2013 and travel with dependants provide us with a roadmap to real and functioning 15-minute cities.<\/p>\n [Read: How this company leveraged AI to become the Netflix of Finland<\/span><\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n The research study<\/a> Travelling in a Woman\u2019s Shoes: Understanding Women\u2019s Travel Needs in Ireland to Inform the Future of Sustainable Transport Policy and Design<\/em> shows us that understanding car dependency, modal shift, and a <\/span>smaller scale<\/em> travel landscape is about understanding everyday life. It illustrates that, when designing and integrating mobility solutions and land use policy, we need to consider that people are situated<\/em> with families, gendered roles, fears, joys, and risk appetites. Delivering sustainable mobility in the post-pandemic future is about unpacking these \u2018situations<\/em>\u2019. Whilst research was conducted just prior to the global pandemic, the insights have even greater resonance today as people struggle to trust shared transport.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one taught me how to cycle on the road \u2013 I wish someone would teach me now\u2026 I hope my son grows up to be confident enough to cycle on the road.\u201d \u2013 Amanda<\/em><\/p>\n The everyday stories of women take us beyond the rhetoric about \u2018inclusion\u2019 and \u2018community,\u2019 introducing voices into the transport discussion that are absent from consultation. These poignant and candid snapshots of everyday life provide the starting point for the next wave of innovation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easier to have a car with a baby, you can just put him in his car seat and be done with it\u201d \u2013 Nathalie <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMy son\u2019s independence is so important to me, it means he\u2019s not attached to me. I know parents who can\u2019t go anywhere [without their autistic child].\u201d \u2013 Josie <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cEven now in the middle of the day [20 years after being attacked by three men in a car park while 8 months pregnant], there are certain places I wouldn\u2019t walk to for no rational reason at all. There are just alarm bells going off. This has impacted everything \u2013 that fear factor is there. I would get into a car at any time of the day and I\u2019d be very conscious. I try not to let it impact my day-to-day life, but it does.\u201d \u2013 Siobhan <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the freedom and independence that driving gives you, and the reassurance of knowing that the car is there in case you get a call saying the kids need to get picked up. That\u2019s just too important.\u201d \u2013 Karen<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI can walk perfectly, but it\u2019s just fatigue at the end of walking that would get me.\u201d \u2013 Lucy<\/em><\/p>\n Designing for women is often about things that would be labeled \u2018nice-to-haves\u2019 by current design standards (or simply not thought of at all) \u2013 <\/span>but which are the very things that foster a lifetime of confident and loyal sustainable transport use.<\/p>\n It could be more thoughtful mobility near health services; child-size<\/span> toilet facilities so that kids don\u2019t fall into adult public toilets; safe cycle paths going places that kids need to go; a convivial night-time coffee stand and good lighting at the tram stop, ensuring women feel<\/em> <\/span>safer; services and infrastructure that link up the cr\u00e8che, local doctor, library, arts precinct, fruit and veg market and perhaps after-school swimming. If these things don\u2019t exist locally, it could be partnering across traditional silos to create them. Reimagining data to tell us about people\u2019s <\/span>situations<\/em>; education for everyone working in the mobility space about the long-lasting<\/span> trauma that can flow from women\u2019s unsafe mobility experiences \u2013 for them and their families; new ways to involve the community in local transport solutions \u2013 to name just a few.<\/p>\n Travelling in a Woman\u2019s Shoes<\/em> is a timely study that holds the clues to designing mobility for resilient local cities, which is in many ways the new priority for all of us. Click here to read Travelling in a Woman\u2019s Shoes<\/a>: Understanding Women\u2019s Travel Needs in Ireland to Inform the Future of Sustainable Transport Policy and Design. <\/span><\/p>\n This article was written by Kelly Saunders<\/a> on <\/span><\/i>The Urban Mobility Daily<\/span><\/i><\/a>, the content site of the Urban Mobility Company, a Paris-based company which is moving the business of mobility forward through physical and virtual events and services. Join their community of 10K+ global mobility professionals by signing up for the<\/span><\/i> Urban Mobility Weekly newsletter<\/span><\/i><\/a>. Read the original article<\/span><\/i> here<\/span><\/i><\/a> and follow them on<\/span><\/i> Linkedin<\/span><\/i><\/a> and<\/span><\/i> Twitter<\/span><\/i><\/a>. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a> Published January 30, 2021 \u2014 14:00 UTC <\/p>\nUnderstanding everyday life is the key to unlocking sustainable transport<\/h2>\n
Designing for women: Converting \u2018nice-to-have\u2019 to \u2018must-haves\u2019<\/h2>\n
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