Transportation planning for mobility and accessibility: an evaluation of gender and transport in San Francisco

Public transportation is a critical infrastructure and social determinant of health for billions of people. For women, who are, globally, the dominant users of transit, this infrastructure is particularly important for accessibility and mobility. Women rely on transit to access economic opportunity in the form of jobs and school, but they also engage in mobilities of care: trips outside of the economic sphere that women must still take to uphold the functioning of their households and families (e.g., grocery shopping, taking kids to school, accompanying elders on their journeys). Despite the extent to which women use transit, several gaps in the literature on gender and transport persist. This thesis aims to bridge three existing gaps to gain a holistic understanding of accessibility and mobility for women in San Francisco as they relate to transportation planning and infrastructure. This is done through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies that assess daily, local travel for women in San Francisco. First, a novel travel pattern analysis to identify the various number, purpose, mode, time, and distance of trips, along with the spatial context and density of trips is used. This is enhanced by a thematic and content analysis of transcribed and qualitatively coded focus group discussions (n=25). The travel pattern analyses revealed that after trips to home, care and work trips are the most common, and that care, work, and home are co-located along Market Street, though individual participants traverse across the city to complete these trips. Transit was overwhelmingly the most frequently used mode. Walking and recreation were less common, but they were observed to be completed in tandem and clustered in the Sunset district. The qualitative analyses revealed that there are physical and social environments while on transit that impact riders’ experiences. Transportation infrastructure, planning, and circumstantial conditions like time of day or number of people were critical physical environments, while interactions with other passengers and drivers, and participants’ own experiences with traveling with company and identity formed often hostile social environments. Together, these environments impact physical and sensory comfort of riders, their perceptions of safety, and the time they lose, invest, or gain while riding transit. When considered together, it was observed that components of the macro and micro built environment are pertinent to creating gender-sensitive experiences on transit. Recommendations are provided for urban, land use, and transportation planning practioners that consider city-level planning needs, local-level infrastructural needs, and potential solutions for creating more positive social environments on transit. The findings and methodologies here can be further developed and employed in any city to understand how various marginalized groups experience transit, informing universally accessible transportation systems around the world.