This session co-hosted with the Gender CCSA, the Social inclusion GSG of GP SURR and the Gender CoP of the T&I GP will work through the different strands of work being done to understand and address gender issues in urban mobility – a series of short talks will be followed by a discussion of how to mainstream and scale up our efforts.

Talks will include (5-10 min each):

Tatiana Peralta: Are women 'forced' to work closer to home? Gender, Travel and Employment Accessibility in Buenos Aires.

Our current understanding of the differences in mobility patterns for each gender is limited, but technology and geo-referencing can help.  We used the 2009 Household Mobility Survey for the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region to explore the differences in travel patterns for men and women, complemented with geospatial data. Our research confirmed that women are responsible for a disproportionate share of the household's transport burden and have limited choices for mobility, in terms of mode and travel distance.  Spatial data allowed us to identify an important outcome of this combination on commute choices for particular segments of working women.  Trips made by women, particularly mothers (women with children) were made at significantly lower travel speeds than similar men.  Indeed, if average travel speeds for women to equal those of men this opens up more opportunities in the labor market; 20%-80% more jobs on average.

Bianca Alves and Karla Gonzalez: Addressing sexual harassment pilot program on public transport in Mexico

The "Hazme el Paro" project is a pilot initiative to evaluate a strategy to address sexual harassment against women in Mexico City's public transport through the involvement of the community. The institute for women in Mexico has diagnosed that 65% of female users have suffered sexual harassment in public transportation and Mexico city is considered the worst city (in a Thompson Reuters Foundation study with 16 large cities) when considered verbal and physical harassment against women. The intervention builds from the idea that sexual violence against women should be everyone's problem and that there must be a recognition that the "light" forms of harassment, which stem from currently accepted cultural norms, limit women's will to travel by public transportation and thus reduce their access to opportunities. The project has been built in collaboration with local NGOs with expertise on transport and gender, the Ministry of Mobility, the Mexico city's Ministry of Women, the George Washington University and Langelan and Associates, a consultancy firm with worldwide experience on non-confrontational strategies to address sexual harassment in public spaces

Daniel Pulido:  Using transport infrastructure to deliver gender-related public services – The case of Rio

Brazil has been recognized internationally for the "Lei Maria da Penha" (LMDP), one of the most innovative laws on domestic violence worldwide, and whose implementation is the responsibility of state governments. Nonetheless, despite policy advances, violence against women remains an extremely serious problem in the State of Rio, particularly in the metropolitan region. The rate of women murdered by men is higher than the average rate reported for the country as a whole and significantly above the rate reported for Sao Paulo. Furthermore, between 2005 and 2012 the incidence of crimes against women increased with rape, threats and aggravated assault as the most common. As it is the case in other States, Rio has not been able to fully implement the LMDP due in part to lack of resources and physical facilities. A particular barrier to the operationalization of the social services contemplated by this law has been the placement of these services in locations that are difficult to access for potential beneficiaries. To change this situation, the Government of Rio is implementing the Via Lilas program, which uses the existing mass transit infrastructure as means to increases access and uptake of gender-focused legal, social and economic inclusion resources and services, at reduced establishment and operating costs.  With Bank support, The Government of Rio launched the program in early March with the installation of information kiosks in transit stations. The presentation will discuss the components and initial results of the program and discuss next steps for Bank support.

Nupur Gupta and Atul Agarwal: Gender issues in public transport; evidence from Indian cities.

This profiles the city bus user (and non user) satisfaction of 12 Indian cities with an emphasis on women users to understand their specific needs and concerns.

Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, is also unique in the country in terms of use of public transport. More than 80% of motorized trips are by public transport. Sub-urban rail system in Mumbai is known as its life line. Yet, with high percentage of trips on public transport, it has lots of opportunities for improvement. A study carried out as part of MUTP2A project to assess the public transport needs of women in Mumbai with a view to identify their priorities in using public transport. This assessment was a step towards developing a Gender Action Plan for Mumbai's transport that is critical to institutionalize gender-inclusive and responsive transport planning and provision. The output is an understanding on women's travel patterns that builds the foundation for understanding the ways in which they use public transport and the degree to which this is met by the public transport system and view on women's priorities in public transport and potential ideas for addressing those. As a next step, detailed action plan is being developed and to be implemented on suburban rail system and its selected stations.