International Women's Day (IWD) has been observed in different countries since the early 1900’s and was celebrated by the United Nations for the first time in 1975. On March 8th we celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women globally. This is also the day that marks a call to action for greater gender equality. The 2022 campaign theme is #BreakTheBias. Imagine a gender-equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women's equality. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias. Celebrate women's achievements. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality (from the official webpage).

More than half of the SABRINA project team are women. Last year on the occasion of the IWD ten of them answered four short questions (read the article HERE). This year, we are sharing a blog written by Monica Olyslagers, a Global Innovation Manager at International Road Assessment Programme, a charity dedicated to saving lives by eliminating high-risk roads throughout the world. In the SABRINA project, we use the iRAP methodology and CycleRAP model to assess the safety of selected sections of the EuroVelo bicycle route in the Danube area. 

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Monica Olyslagers is iRAP’s Global Innovation Manager and oversees initiatives such as AiRAP for the accelerated and intelligent collection of data for road safety, and CycleRAP, a bicycling and micro-mobility risk assessment model. Monica joined the iRAP team in 2015 as the Programme Coordinator for iRAP’s projects under the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety.

Monica’s previous roles in the Australian Government’s transport ministry (2007-2014) included aviation safety in the PNG and Pacific, the national urban policy and cycling strategy, high-speed rail feasibility assessment, and transport policy development.

Monica has a keen interest in improving urban environments for all people, for a healthier, safer, and more inclusive, equitable and sustainable future. She holds a Master’s degree in Development Planning and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and the Arts. Monica lives in Guangzhou, China.

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As a woman working in transport, I’m aware of how big an issue gender is. It’s not a theoretical or abstract concept for me. I have experienced first-hand the challenges of trying to get from A to B, often via C, D and sometimes E as a pedestrian, bicyclist, public transit user, driver, passenger, on my own, at night, during the off-peak, with kids in tow, with two suitcases and kids in tow… you get the picture. Too often, the transport system feels like a hostile environment that was not created with people like me in mind.

For women, safety is often the first and foremost consideration in deciding when, where and how to travel. If I take my bike with a child, is there a safe facility I can ride on? If I walk at night, do I risk not being seen on roads where there’s no footpath. If I catch public transit, am I risking my personal safety? Is there streetlighting? It’s the unfortunate reality that in places I live, I am too often forced to select a mode of transport that creates toxic emissions, gives me motion sickness and which costs more because of a lack of safe and convenient means to walk, use my bike or take public transit.

But I am privileged. I have a driving license and access to a vehicle when I need it. Globally, women are far less likely than men to drive, have a licence or a vehicle due to a range of reasons. In many places, car use and ownership are luxuries many cannot afford. Yet despite this, our roads are built to prioritise the comfort, convenience and safety for the privileged few in cars to the detriment of everyone else. In doing so, studies find that women and girls see a significant proportion public spaces as highly gendered, ‘frightening’, and to be avoided if possible. This issue doesn’t just affect women of course, it affects children, the elderly, the poor.

International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) is a small but global NGO working to reduce traffic-related deaths and serious injuries. iRAP’s road safety assessment method, which gives a road a safety Star Rating, aims to address infrastructure-related risk by giving roads individual Star Ratings for four road user groups—pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and vehicle occupants. This method, which has now been used in over 100 countries, makes it very hard to ignore the safety of other road user groups in the design of our roads and streets.

It has been tremendously successful. Approximately three million kilometers of roads have been safety assessed or had crash risk mapping completed. iRAP’s method is incorporated into the United Nation’s Global Road Safety Targets and the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.

But here at iRAP, we are not ones to rest on our laurels. Gender inequity in transport remains one of the key challenges to ensuring a safer and more equitable future for our children, and as such, we need to do something about it.

Part of the problem is data, or rather the lack of it. As Caroline Criado Perez argues in her book, Invisible Women, women’s travel patterns and choices are often just that—invisible—meaning road authorities around the world are making critical decisions about transportation infrastructure—decisions which have long-term, often multi-generational, impacts on communities—without taking the needs of everybody into consideration.

iRAP’s method uses a data driven approach to assess the safety of road users. But like anything that relies on data, it is essential we look at this from a gender perspective to better understand the safety of transport for the modes women use.

We looked at a sample of cities which completed iRAP assessments with the support of the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Initiative for Global Road Safety between 2015 and 2019, and where data for travel by mode and gender was available.

The results show a fascinating story. It shows clearly that our road and street networks are, on the whole, less safe for women than for men. See the original blog on the iRAP webpage where you can compare the results from São Paulo (Brazil), Bogota (Colombia), Accra (Ghana) and Mumbai (India). Very similar stories and results can, however, be found also in many European cities. 

As Monica concluded her blog: Knowing how and where women travel is first step to make changes. We need more data and we need it disaggregated by gender and mode. We need to routinely assess safety across entire road networks. We need more systematic participation of communities in road planning and design.

Understanding the gender differences in mode can help transport authorities better plan and design road networks which reflect the diverse needs of all road users. Join us to speak up for safe infrastructure for women on the International Women’s Day. #Breakthebias #IWD2022