Understanding and responding to the transit needs of women in Canada

The historical practices of transportation planning are known to be gender-neutral and as a result have marginalized the experiences of a large sub-section of the population, namely women. Identifying the motives behind women's travel behaviours works to inform equitable data collection methods, transportation planning, and public transit policy. Correspondingly, understanding how public transit services and policies (curated with gender-neutral data and transportation planning principles) impact women's travel can reveal barriers to public transit usage. An inductive literature review of Global North grey and academic documents regarding women's travel behaviour (mode choice, travel route, time of travel and distance) and needs was conducted. The synthesis reveals that gender roles which lead to disparities in caregiving, income, employment, and security result in women being more likely (as compared to men) to complete trip chains, mid-day or off-peak trips, and shorter distance trips. A systematic policy review of 18 public transit systems from Canada's eight largest Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) and a webinar discussing public transit policy with female industry leaders reveals that the majority of public transit systems assessed do not explicitly account for gender differences when drafting actionable policy, service standards and data collection methodology. The identification of opportunities for gender inclusivity informs future research and policies regarding women's travel. Applying a gender lens to the creation of service standards, the introduction of new public transit technologies, the collection of real-time data, the creation of customer satisfaction surveys, and the evaluation of business cases and planning processes can result in the equitable consideration of women's travel needs in public transit service and delivery.

Mots clés

women, gender, travel behaviour, public transit, transportation