Active mobility perception from an intersectional perspective: insights from two European cities

Perspectives on gender in Romania

“…Generally, women's trips are shorter in distance and longer in terms of time travelled when compared to men (Queirós et al, 2017;Ng and Acker, 2018;Arguello et al, 2021;Carboni et al, 2022). In Alba Iulia metropolitan area, the average distance of the most frequent trips is around 23.5 km for both genders.…”

“…Gender differences exist regarding accessibility, safety and security perceptions, and labour market participation. These differences are explained by a series of factors, such as demographic characteristics, labour feminisation rate, education level, income, personal aspirations, perceptions, as well as social and economic status, and local transport systems' offers (Cunha et al, 2014;Queirós et al, 2017;Campisi et al, 2022;Carboni et al, 2022), or demographic structure (e.g., having or not children or a partner) (Scheiner and Holz-Rau, 2015). It often leads to discrepancies in the quality of life, unequal opportunities and mobility segregation (Thynell, 2016;Boisjoly and Yengoh, 2017;Singh, 2019;Arguello et al, 2021).…”

“…On the other hand, although women travel less frequently and cover shorter distances per day, their journeys are more complex, consisting of a larger number of stops (Monteiro et al, 2016;Queirós et al, 2017;Ng and Acker, 2018;Arguello et al, 2021;Campisi et al, 2022;Carboni et al, 2022). Additionally, Ng and Acker (2018) found some evidence regarding women's preferences in using public transport systems and shared taxi services rather than cars when compared with men.…”

“…Additionally, Stark and Meschik (2018) found that women who experienced harassment acts during their trips were more likely to exclude certain destinations and travel modes from their daily itineraries. Consequently, at the present moment, women are less satisfied with the existing transport services (Arguello et al, 2021;Kalakou et al, 2021;Carboni et al, 2022), and they generally have travel restrictions due to personal security concerns (Stark and Meschik, 2018). Under these circumstances, studies assume that urban transport solutions have mainly been designed to accommodate men's mobility patterns and behaviours (Singh, 2019;Uteng, 2021).…”

“…Therefore, to achieve more gender-neutral transport and mobility solutions, there is a need for mobility policies that consider women's particular needs. Despite the increasing number of public institutions being more aware about the importance of women's experiences, patterns and behaviours while travelling, women's mobility needs are rarely taken into account by urban and transport planners (Stark and Meschik, 2018;Bilin Han et al, 2019;Gauvin et al, 2020;Hidayati, 2020;Carboni et al, 2022). The main reasons are the entrenched gender hierarchies in most modern societies.…”