Women’s Issues in Transportation: Summary of the 4th International Conference, Volume 1: Conference Overview and Plenary Papers (2011)

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3 Introduction Susan Herbel and Danena Gaines, Cambridge Systematics, Inc., Rapporteurs The first International Conference on Women’s Issues in Transportation was held in 1978. It was followed by a second and third conference in 1996 and 2004, respectively. These proceedings document the fourth International Conference, held on October 28 through 30, 2009, at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Conference Center of the National Academy of Sciences in Irvine, California. The purpose of these conferences is to stimulate think- ing and research on transportation issues central to wom- en’s quality of life around the world. The idea is to look backward, take stock of what has been accomplished, and explore methods for translating research into prac- tice. In addition, the conference was designed to look forward and identify the important questions needing attention from research communities. Transportation research remains a male-dominated field, but gender is not just about differences between men and women; it is about how these differences get translated into prac- tice and power sharing. The goal of the conference was to generate positive change in women’s quality of life through research. Martin Wachs of the RAND Corporation set the stage by pointing out that the first conference on women’s transportation issues was ridiculed. Many thought it was frivolous and exclaimed that it was just another wasteful public expenditure. The researchers, however, were not deterred by the criticism. Along the way, the Women’s Issues in Transportation Committee of the Transporta- tion Research Board (TRB) was established and con- tinues to serve as a stimulus to further research on the issues. The conferences featured excellent presentations and discussions. The published proceedings were, and still are, widely cited. The second and third conferences helped “women’s travel issues” enter the mainstream of scholarly and policy discourse. A community of interest was nurtured by these events. People compared notes and exchanged data, studies were replicated, data collection gradually became institutionalized, and trends were tracked over time. These are all important accomplishments that mark the maturing of an intellectual enterprise. The enterprise has progressed from an anomalous set of inquiries at the edge of the mainstream 30 years ago to graduate seminars, a stream of journal articles and books, and policy innovations all over the world addressing the theme of gender in transport. The 2009 conference agenda was built around themes considered central to women’s transportation issues in today’s society: • Demographics and travel behavior (e.g., gender differences in travel behavior, attitudes, and preferences; citizen participation; the relationship of travel to house- hold size and composition; and the impact of income disparities, immigration, age, ethnicity, race, and dis- ability); • Safety and personal security (e.g., gender differ- ences in driving patterns, crash patterns, and self-regula- tion; patterns across generations; women’s vulnerability in crashes; safety of pregnant drivers; women’s ergo- nomic needs in relation to design features of the differ- ent modes; gender differences in response to actual and perceived crime, harassment, and security in various

4 WOMeN’S ISSueS IN TRANSPORTATION, vOluMe 1 travel modes; and the impact of design features on crime prevention and reduction); • Transportation planning (e.g., differential responses to land use and community design features; implications of gender differences for travel demand modeling and transportation planning; social justice; and transporta- tion and public health concerns); and • extreme events (e.g., gender differences in prepared- ness for and response to hurricanes, earthquakes, or terror- ist attacks; emergency response; and risk management).