Imbalance fuels the bias in transport planning towards typically male modes

Looking back, people will wonder why a gender gap was accepted for so long, says John Yellowlees

The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport chose its 100 th anniversary dinner in Cumber nauldtoce lebrate progress in tackling inequality. Joan Aitken OBE, former Traffic Commissioner for Scotland, Talat Yaqoob from Equate Scotland and Ruth Waring of Women in Logistics spoke about the need to match the gender equality of customers so as to provide them with services relevant to their expectations.

Women make up only one-fifth of transport sector employees across Europe. Currently the Registers of Scotland figures for 2017 estimate the population is 49 per cent male and 51 per cent female but women hold only 6.25 percent‘ Head of Transport’ positions in public bodies in

Scotland despite these senior staff being responsible for championing the interests of citizens. Transport operators have similar gender gaps, and the UK transport sector’s average pay gap is over 5 per cent.

As humans we are biased by personal experience. The male-dominated transport sector leads to poor understanding of the factors that contribute to current gender bias. This gender imbalance fuels the bias in transport planning towards typically male modes and patterns of travel.

Women play a much greater role in childcare and caring professions generally which are associated with more complicated transport needs. As a result of the male bias, transport planning has traditionally emphasised peak-hour road congestion related to employment, when carers are as likely to be travelling offpeak and to destinations other than employment centres. Women are more likely to need to align trips for different purposes, being twice as likely as men to drop off or pick up children on their commute, undertaking more food shopping trips, and more likely to accompany elderly relatives to the doctor.

Women use public transport more than men, yet they face many barriers that limit their mobility. A recent report prepared for Scotland’ s transport think tank the Scottish Transport Studies Group by policyspecialist George Eckton showed how women were often being inadvertently excluded from participating fully within the labour market. This has serious social and economic consequences, and runs counter to the stated aims of government and business for inclusive growth.

These problems have fallen below the radar of transport planners because decision-makers relied on biased data. Transport agencies often opt for technological solutions to replace staff because the data on costs and benefits ignores information about perceptions of safety and security. If planners focus on the needs of people, they invest in different solutions. For example, accurate, real-time information helps passengers to feel safe and plan limited timebudgets better.

Bridging the gender data gap will create better decision-making processes. More decisions across the sec