Page 61 - TrafficInfraTech Dec-Jan 2019

MOBILITY

and girls travel , and their patterns & Urban Planning’ were Krishna

of using transportation systems. The Prasad, DGP & Chairman of Road Safety
sessions also emphasized the role of Authority of Telangana Government;
transportation infrastructure, systems Dr. Nandita Shah, Co-Director, Akshara
and institutions in ensuring that their Centre; Dr Ashish Verma, Associate

travel is safe, accessible, convenient Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering,
and affordable. The policy brief on Indian Institute of Science; Prof Amita
women and transport in Indian cities Bhide, Head of Habitat Studies, The
authored by ITDP and SafetiPin was Tata Institute of Social Sciences and

also presented. The panelists of the Sonal Shah, Urban Planner.
opening session ‘Transport Policies

Sonal Shah: We need to recognize They walked more, they cycled, used
that our transport is deeply gendered. public transport but predominantly buses
Women not only travel differently from and an intermediate public transport in
men but their access to personal and the form of rickshaws, shared rickshaws
private modes of transport is unequal. and other vehicles.
Due to the predominant caretaking In Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai and
responsibilities that they perform, Delhi, and we find that on an average
we see that women’s mobility is about 75% of the trips made by women
characterized by trip chaining. That is, again were by walking, fewer trips by
they may perform as care-takers other cycling and by public transport that
trips either to schools or to hospitals or is predominantly buses. If we look at
to markets on their way to work or they Mumbai we find that more than 90% of
may also have non-work trips. Women women are using sustainable modes of
are also more likely to be accompanied transport.
with dependents or travellers, are also However, we need to acknowledge It is not only about
more like to travel consistently in the that our streets and our public transport
peak and in the off-peak hours. are extremely hostile to women. Data physical infrastructure
Therefore, when we think about by women’s groups across the country services and operations
planning a transportation system, we have revealed that there is high level but it is also about
need to acknowledge this. Data from of sexual harassment on the streets
the census of India which was published while waiting for the buses or in public programs to change
in 2011 revealed some interesting facts. transport as well. We have data from social behaviour and
We analysed the data for some of the Delhi, from Mumbai, from Calicut and
big cities in India and found that there from Lucknow. The NCRB revealed that encouraging economic
was higher percentage of women who about the rate of crimes in cities were opportunities for women.
worked from the place of residence as higher than that of the national average.
compared to men. We also found that Now, this could mean two things, it Sonal Shah
the average travel distance was lesser could mean that there are more crimes
than that of men and 84% of women in cities against women or there is also
used sustainable modes of transport. more reporting.

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