Decoding Women’s Transport Experiences: A study of Nairobi, Lagos, and Gauteng

Across the globe, women use public transport more than men. Despite making up the majority of public transport users, transport policies for most countries neglect the specific needs and challenges women face in their daily journeys. Research has shown that, when planning processes don’t explicitly account for gender, solutions tend to benefit men the most.

The main obstacle isn’t just a lack of political willingness to make improvements that make women’s lives safer, but the lack of reliable and readily available data on the topic. In emerging markets, where accurate mobility information is already hard to come by, obtaining gender-sensitive data on public transport dynamics is even more of a challenge. In this in-depth study, commissioned by the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI), and produced by WhereIsMyTransport, contributors explore:

  • The role of gender-sensitive data in understanding the reality women face in their journeys every day, and the impact this can have on enabling economic development in emerging markets.
  • How different factors, such as age, occupation, and socio-economic level, influence women’s needs, the way they make decisions, and how they interact with their surroundings when using public transport.
  • Novel ways of producing gender-sensitive data that enrich traditional quantitative data, revealing the specifics of the lived experiences and surfacing the voice of women through real-life stories.

Download it here to access over 100 pages of unparalleled insights, including journey maps for a rich range of user groups and cross-city comparative findings.