Mobile Moms

We all need to move through the city. However, not everyone has the same places to go and things to do. As most cities are designed by men in paid employment, most of urban mobility is limited to getting from your home in the suburbs to your work place in the city. This is reflected in roads, bike lanes and public transport routes. Women, and especially mothers, have very different travel patterns. In order to accomplish all the tasks that the unpaid care work demands, women often do what is called  “trip chaining”.  This term describes the pattern in which a person combines a number of purposes into one trip. For example, a mother first drops off her kids at daycare and school, then goes to her part-time job, after which she does the shopping for the family and then visits an elderly relative before heading back home. These patterns are also called “multi-purpose trips” (Kern, 2020). Obviously, they require very different infrastructure. Women need a network approach in urban planning that allows them to connect a number of different kinds of locations efficiently without having to do big detours. 

The map on the right illustrates Utrecht’s public transportation network. Notice how a large number of places are connected. Pay attention to the different kinds of public transport in the legend that accommodate different needs of speed and stop frequency. 

Contrast this to disconnected lines with connections only from the suburbs to downtown that are illustrated in the example of  Denver  in the image below.

When we think about public transportation in connection to the needs of primary caregivers, the accessibility, number, and locations of bus stops are important. In the map on the right, notice how the stops are distributed throughout the city. Then zoom into the map a little bit. A little red house will appear at a randomly chosen location. Around it, there are three zones indicating the walking times of 5, 10, and 15 minutes from the home. Count the number of bus stops the mother in that house can reach within 15 minutes walking distance!

Click on any bus symbol and check out an exploratory image of a bus stop. Utrecht made  headlines  a while ago about planting bee-friendly plants on their bus stops’ roofs!

On the map on the right, you can see all of Utrecht’s bus stops again. Green indicates that there is seating available at the stop, whereas red shows the lack thereof. Seating is crucial for especially pregnant people. The map shows you that there are still a large number of stops that do not provide this service.

This second map shows the availability of waste bins at the different stops. Having a small child significantly increases the amount of garbage you have to carry around, and public bins make mothers' lives therefore a lot easier. Here as well, Utrecht needs to supply more stops with this service.

Beyond accessibility, it is important to adjust fares according to women’s needs. Often, they have to pay a new fare for each time they enter the bus again, adding up to high costs. This is especially significant because women earn less and income is often not shared equally in families. London's  Hopper Fare  is a start to such planning: For £1.55 you can take as many trips within one hour. Children under four years already  travel for free in Utrecht. 

Image: https://www.rnet.nl/

 “Third Places”  are spaces in a community that are neither the home nor the workplace. For women in general, cities offer a limited amount of social space limited to venues of entertainment such as movie theaters or cafes. With young children, these become even more limited: People are disturbed by a baby's crying and women are either actively discouraged from breastfeeding or are made to feel uncomfortable. Having spaces where mothers can meet with others and bring their children along is therefore crucial for accommodating women’s needs in the city. Spaces where there is no expectation to spend money are especially important. 

On the map on the left you can explore three examples of such third places: Parks, playgrounds, and public libraries. Feel free to click on the layer symbol at the top right corner to turn individual symbols on and off to look at the location of a single example or all of them together. 

Well-lit spaces contribute to a city feeling safe for women. Zoom in on the map to see the location of street lights all over Utrecht. As you can see, the map also shows the parks. Pay attention to where there are gaps in the distribution of lights. 

Promoting streetlights are sometimes used as a diversion from acknowledging that most gender violence actually happens in the home and not on the streets. This is, of course, no reason to not advocate for better street lights but an important aspect to keep in mind. Enforcing the idea that the city is a dangerous space and the home the safe harbor strengthens the idea that a woman should best stay at home. 

When talking about safety for women in public spaces we also cannot ignore the racist connotations that these pledges often have, when, for example, men of color are immediately perceived as a threat by white women. This is not to downplay the danger that women are exposed to in urban spaces but rather to emphasize that urban planning needs to keep the realities of all people in mind.