Gendered transport planning: How Danish transport planning processes blackbox gender

Samson, Caroline ; Porrazzo, Alexandra Pickett

4. term

Sustaianable Cities, Master

2020

2020-06-02

113 pages

In cities across the world, studies have shown that gender impacts the way people use transport systems, and the reason why they travel differently. Differences in how and why women and men travel differently, on average, are seen to be partially a matter of choice, and partially a matter of constraint. Furthermore, these differences are recognized as having significant consequences, especially for social and environmental sustainability. In a European context, gendered differences have been increasingly acknowledged as relevant for transport planners to consider in their planning processes. Transport planning, however, is a traditional discipline, where considering more social, ‘soft’, or qualitative elements may not come naturally. This thesis studies the intersection of transport and gender in Denmark. The Danish context is considered particularly interesting because of a found reluctance in Denmark towards issues of inequality and general discussions about feminism. Blackboxing is identified as a useful theory to describe and unpack transport planning processes, and the ways in which they standardize and simplify elements such as gender. A literature review results in the assumption that gender is being blackboxed in Danish transport planning, and leads to the research question, ‘to what extent and why is gender blackboxed in Danish transport planning?’ Interviews with ten Danish transport planners are utilized to gain insight into what elements of Danish transport planning are blackboxing gender, and why gender is blackboxed, according to the Danish transport planners. Elements of transport planning processes such as data collection, data analysis, and user group identification are pointed out as having many parts which blackbox gender, perhaps unbeknownst to the transport planners. Reasons given by the transport planners for a more active lack of consideration for gender include, a lack of knowledge about how to consider gender, obstructive elements of personal and national identity, and asymmetrical perceptions of their organizations’ roles. It is found that gender is blackboxed to a great extent, through various transport planning processes and for interrelated reasons.

Transport ; Gender ; Denmark ; Blackboxing ; Transport planning

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