Reading about how transport planning is sexist bc it’s premised on commuting - going from A to B and back, which is how men mostly travel - instead of what women do, which is called “trip-chaining”: planning a multiple stop route to include different errands/responsibilities

Like, the pharmacy is on the way to my meeting on Thursday which is near that bookshop so I’ll pick up a script on the way and grab a birthday card for my friend after. Or, I’ll pick up the kids and take them with me grocery shopping on the way home from work.

Men also commute by car whereas women trip chain using public transport or walking. In many major cities >60% of public transport users are women! But the system is designed to facilitate the commute (roads & maybe trains) instead of the trip-chain (trams, buses, pavements)

It’s blown my lil mind. I’m so used to trip-chaining - hot, sweaty, or late bc one tram doesn’t match up with the next and I’ve had to run or wait - it didn’t even occur to me that men don’t get about this way. But thinking about it now, ofc they don’t.

This is all linked, obviously, to wider issues like caring commitments and household responsibilities falling to women, absence of women in transport planning/engineering careers, failure to collect data about women’s needs, etc.

The piece I was reading is here and it draws from Caroline Criado Perez’s book Invisible Women: Exposing the Data Bias in a World Designed for Men https://www.londonreconnections.com/2019/mind-the-gender-gap-the-hidden-data-gap-in-transport/

Also my friend @okreroy is an expert in this stuff and well worth a follow if you (like me) are suddenly newly interested in urban planning and how it reflects privilege and power! https://twitter.com/okreroy/status/1123151427906428933?s=12