No Traffic, If Possible
Many believe travel decisions are a byproduct of one’s location of residence and employment, wealth, and access to transit facilities. Increasingly, gender is being discussed as a determinant of one’s travel patterns.
In light of recent global urbanization patterns, urban planners and designers have been challenged with the task of providing infrastructure and services for an exponentially growing population. While both developing and developed regions struggle to effectively plan for its cities, Pucher et al. (2005) argues the term “transportation crisis” is far more relevant to developing world cities.
Arguably, issues of social equity are hardly considered in the land use and transportation planning of India. In an attempt to decongest city centers, municipalities have encouraged sprawling, low density development, causing automobiles to become of increasing importance, so much so that the Indian government has targeted increased auto ownership as a national goal for economic development and modernization. These policies cause a litany of adverse effects for all urban residents, increasing commutes to jobs, automobile emissions, and incidences of transit fatalities.
Daily travel in developing cities is difficult for all residents. Women, however, are faced with unique mobility challenges.
As feminization and informalization of the workplace in developing cities are increasing the travel demands of low income women, because of social and cultural norms of the region, as well as the lack of affordable, efficient, and safe travel options, women continued to be held back in terms of their physical mobility.
Women, primarily thought of as the “homemakers”, use their daily trips both for commuting to their jobs, and to fulfill domestic duties. Because of this, women’s travel patterns have shown to include shorter, more frequent, and more dispersed trips throughout the day, when compared to their male counterparts (Peters, 1998). Women’s frequent trips lend them to group more of their trips together (i.e women “trip chain” more). Women also have unique modes of travel. In comparison to men, women are more likely to walk or take public transit, as well as carry heavier loads, and travel with dependents (Peters, 1998). Women of the lowest socioeconomic class are of course the most apt to walk, as well as spend the greatest amount of time walking to their jobs, and daily activities.
Dangerous Pedestrian Conditions
It is no secret that a large majority of urban India lacks proper pedestrian facilities, to allow safe travel for residents who walk. Beyond the simple fact that there is limited pedestrian infrastructure (sidewalks, crosswalks, foot bridges), where it is present, often there are severe obstructions. The list of possible obstructions is endless: gapping holes in the concrete, to lines of motorcycles, to parked garbage trucks, to meandering cows, to electrical cords, to piles of bricks. The other day, in a moment of absence of not watching my feet at every moment, I tripped over a bedframe, then ended in up in a hole in the dug up concrete. All is possible on the streets of Bangalore.
Of course, this is not the case in all areas of the city, or in all cities. Particularly for cities or neighborhoods that have large amounts of visitors (for both tourist and political reasons), maintaining pedestrian infrastructure is a higher priority. Cities that have experienced a surge of development within the past few decades seem to fare the worse, as their infrastructure is failing to keep pace with the city’s growth (Such as Bangalore). For example, the images below display the haphazard sidewalk conditions in the Koramangala neighborhood of South Bangalore. Interestingly enough, Koramangala is one of the most sought after residential areas of Bangalore, full of wealthy families, and young professionals working in startups.
Dangerous traffic conditions clearly affects both men and women. However, because women are often traveling with dependents, and heavy materials, the adverse effects of dangerous pedestrian conditions are further exacerbated.
In a recent group interview with women in Mumbai, who were mainly university students, when asking about their travel challenges, many would expect answers pertaining to sexual harassment. But Mumbai, is often consider one of the safest cities in India. The challenges these women listed pertained to physical street conditions: Too many traffic modes on the street, sidewalk obstructions, lack of foot bridges, uncontrolled dangerous animals on the road. When asked what could improve their travel, one woman politely raised her hand and asked, as if it were a request for a christmas present, “Also…no traffic, if possible.”
A mental mapping exercise with women in Mumbai, primarily slum dwellers, revealed similar findings. As the respondent’s slum communities are situated along a major expressway, for those walking, both young and old, they must cross eight lanes of traffic to reach the market, schools, and public restrooms. It seems fitting when I asked respondents to circle areas they feel unsafe, almost all marked the expressway as a area of concern. When asked what could improve their travel, a 10 year girl drew a skyway bridge as an idea to make her walk to the market safer (See images below).
Fears of the road from these women seem warranted, as India currently has the worst road traffic crash rate in the world. India represents 15% of the world’s road fatalities, despite the fact that the country only has only 1% of the world’s motor vehicles. Specific to Mumbai, according to Mid Day, pedestrians and cyclists comprise 61% of fatalities in road accidents. This seems surprising, for a city in which 51% of residents walk to work everyday, to have such unsafe road conditions for pedestrians.
The Tender SURE project is working to address the two major gaps they believe India’s urban roads are suffering from: a lack of design specifications, and a poor procurement process. In Bangalore, Tender SURE is aiming to upgrade roads in the Central Business District to mitigate traffic congestion, be inclusive to the comfort and safety of pedestrians and cyclists, as well as recognize the needs of street vendors. One of the roads affected by Tender SURE is Cunningham Road. By any standards, walking along Cunningham Road is a pleasant pedestrian experience, with wide, unobstructed sidewalks, crosswalks, and space for street vendors.
These improvement projects seem valuable to improving India’s urban fabric, however it in unclear how the city’s poor, specifically women, are being considered in these improvements. While women have distinct travel patterns and needs, such as traveling with children, they are often left out of the urban planning discussion. For example, while Goal 11 (Make Cities Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable) of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals includes paying special attention to women’s access to safe and secure transit one their targets, no where is gender included in the targets of Goal 9 (Create Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure). Likewise, no where is mobility and transport mentioned in the targets of Goal 5 (Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls).
Specific to India, the Ministry of Urban Development Government of India recently launched the “The Smart Cities Project”, under which 100 cities in India, approved by the Union cabinet, will undergo rigorous transformation in order to meet the needs of the growing urban population, while also focusing on sustainable and inclusive development. Improving mobility is one of the four main pillars of this project, which encourages walking, cycling, and public transport as primary means for replacing personal automobile use. As progressive as this initiative is, there is no mention of the role of gender.
It seems to improve women’s mobility, the role of gender first must be discussed, and then also recognized by policy makers, and urban and transportation planners, as a determinant to one’s travel needs.
EMBARQ India is one of the few organizations to recognize gender’s role in transport, and actively seek to better understand the challenges women face when traveling, and needed policy and design solutions. In 2013, EMBARQ India conducted a gender assessment of women’s safety on public transportation was conducted in Bhopal. Findings revealed in Bhopal there was: a short supply of public transport infrastructure, differences in the travel patterns of women and men, and a high level of harassment of women who used public transport.
EMBARQ India proposed a full-fledged Gender Program for the city of Bhopal. This program included solutions in four categories: Institutional Capacity (Example: Hiring female employees on ground operations), Public Transport Planning and Operations (Example: Special bus pass for women), Public Transport Infrastructure and Vehicles (Example: Women friendly design of buses), and Enforcement and Grievance System (Example: Availability of helpline numbers).
I recently was having tea with a former EMBARQ India employee. “You see”, she mentioned in between sips of vanilla chai, “we need to consider the impacts of development in a backwards sense…who will be most affected if we do not provide these improvements?”
Without needing to be said, continuing to place importance on the automobile, and not improving haphazard walkways and mismanaged traffic, will disproportionately impact those who walk the most, urban poor women. It will be those walking their children to school, those rolling carts of produce to the market, those navigating from colony to colony, cleaning materials at hand.
This is not to say these women do not travel in the face of these issues. Through all my interviews I’ve had with women, asking them about their travel patterns, without failing, at some point they say something along the lines of “We’ve gotten use to it,” or “We have no other choice”. While traversing haphazard streets, narrow slum alleyways, obstructed sidewalks, and major expressways, these women face immense challenges, but nonetheless, preserve, and continue to find a way to fulfill there domestic and productive duties.
