Cities, and how they are designed, are not gender-neutral. Insecurity and the fear of physical or sexual violence in public spaces limit women’s and girls’ mobility.
Investigating the role of gender in urban mobility is key to understanding how women and girls can safely travel through and benefit from urban environments. However, there is little data available on gender gaps in urban mobility, meaning that the needs of women and girls are rarely taken into account in urban and transportation planning.
In this report, researchers try to fill this data gap by analyzing data from anonymized Call Detail Records (CDRs) of mobile phone users in the greater metropolitan area of Santiago, Chile. By analyzing the mobility patterns of over 400,00 individuals, the researchers find that:
- Women move less overall than men;
- Women have a smaller radius of movement and;
- Women tend to concentrate their time in a smaller set of locations.
Their results conclude that this data can be used to help policymakers design more gender-inclusive urban transit systems.