Active travel plans must take heed of gendered differences

Anne Cronin believes city planning needs to  focus on how mobility patterns differ for women, children, the elderly, those with a disability and different ethnic minorities.

While the pandemic has seen more of us get out of cars and onto our two feet or our bikes, it’s also highlighted the differences in the availability of public spaces to men and women. As our cities move towards more sustainable transport models, with increased public funding being given to these, it’s worth examining whether that funding is being channelled appropriately to tackle this discrepancy.

The Department of Transport has recently announced 248 new jobs across all local authorities to expand walking and cycling facilities across the country. Up to 218 staff will be employed across the local authorities with an additional 30 proposed for Regional Cycling Design Offices, of which 25 posts are proposed for the Mid-West region, to establish a multidisciplinary active travel office in Limerick. The office will be populated with professionals from a range of disciplines needed to make our roads and streets safer, healthier, and able to carry more people to where they want to go. One of the key needs, as identified by the Minister, is that this office “will make our streets more accessible to all.” The backdrop to this landscape however is that spatial and social segregation is increasing in Limerick; largely based on ethnicity, gender and socio-economic conditions. Consequently, we need our public spaces to serve as public meeting places with a potential to bridge social and spatial segregation in society as well as keeping everyone as safe as possible. This puts pressure on planning with reference to prioritising accessible public space.