Researchers identify measures to mitigate gender inequalities in the mobility sector

• A European project has developed self-assessment tools, recommendations and guidelines to make the European transport and mobility system fairer for all users including women, as well as to boost the entry of female professionals in the sector through making use of technologies such as Big Data and Machine Learning.
• Under the framework of the Diamond project, researchers gathered the feedback of over 2,500 public transport users at a European level. Surveys, interviews and focus group sessions have been carried out with professionals in the sector to elaborate novel curriculum guidelines and Corporate Social Responsibility protocols, so that the findings can more easily be applied by transport organisations and trainers.

BARCELONA, Spain, March 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A European consortium has developed tools, protocols and guidelines for promoting gender inclusion and equality in the transport and mobility sector through the assessment of transport user and professionals' needs from a gendered perspective and the use of Big Data and Machine Learning technologies.

The Diamond project has carried out a trans-European data collection campaign on diversity and gender qualitative and quantitative sensitive data to "know what are the factors that mostly affect women's satisfaction across different transport systems, such as metro, railway or shared bicycle services," said Patricia Castillo, Diamond project coordinator and Head of European projects at Eurecat.

The data obtained have been analysed using Big Data and new mathematical models to establish the most important factors according to the characteristics and individual needs of different women profiles to establish actions and measures to improve existing transportation systems.

Transport users' data has been crossed with social media data coming from an analysis of messages posted about transport users' satisfaction at various times of the day and service occupation.

Specifically, according to the analysis, "the main factors influencing users when choosing one transport service over another are stations' safety, emergency management and the avoidance of overcrowding situations, as well as the availability and efficiency of the service and a universal design of the infrastructures, to make them accessible for all," states the scientific coordinator of the Diamond project and CEO of AITEC, Francisco Santarremigia.

The data collection results at user level were complemented with observational data related to the territorial, socio-demographic and mobility characteristics of the urban territory and transport infrastructures, which "has made possible to establish a relationship between the level of user satisfaction and the characteristics of the infrastructures and the environment," adds Santarremigia.

The data analysis has shed light on the needs, obstacles and opportunities of women as users of public transport, shared bicycles services and as drivers or passengers of autonomous vehicles. Women barriers as professionals employed in the transport have also been identified. 

Among the main results of the project, a White Paper addressing gender-specific needs and key actions for a more inclusive and gender-equalitarian transport system has been produced. On the other hand, the guidelines "Autonomous vehicles with gender perspective glasses", offer recommendations for moving towards to more inclusive autonomous cars.

In the field of employment, the needs and challenges of women in accessing the sector as professionals have been assessed. Curriculum guidelines and Corporate Social Responsibility protocols have been developed to increase the share of women working in this sector.

The project has also developed a practical toolbox aimed at transport operators and public administration transport planners and employers in the transport sector for self-assessing the level of inclusion and fairness given by a particular transport service and organization from a gender perspective, as well as recommendations on how to obtain fairness in the transport system for a specific profile.

This toolbox "demonstrates that data of various kinds can be aggregated in order to create innovative and comprehensive models allowing a self-diagnosis and guidelines to achieve a fairer and more inclusive transportation system," said Patricia Castillo.

The Diamond project, launched at the end of 2018, has been funded under the Horizon 2020 call "Demographic Change and Participation of Women in Transport", aimed at promoting an increase of the presence of women in the transport sector, through the assessment of women characteristics and needs, as well as the development of tools and new technologies to assess their acceptance to particular transport modes and non-discriminatory performance as users and as employees.

The Diamond project, coordinated by Eurecat, is constituted by a consortium of 14 members from Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Serbia, Poland, France, and Ireland, including research centres (Eurecat and IBV–Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia), universities (University of Stirling, Edinburgh Napier University, TU Dublin), and the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering of the University of Belgrade), transport operators (Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya and Autolib' Vélib') and transport organiser ( Warsaw Public Transport Authority), associations (Genre & Ville and WAVE) and private companies and consultancies (AITEC, Systematica and RINA).

Project key facts

Full Project Title: Revealing fair and actionable knowledge from data to support women's inclusion in transport systems

Project Acronym: DIAMOND

Start: 1 November 2018

Duration: 39 months

Budget: 2,628,408,75 €

Coordinator: Eurecat Technology Centre

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 824326.