Gender safety perspective in urban planning: The case of pedestrian mobility in Kanpur city

Ease of mobility within a city is one of the essential aspects of urban planning. Quality of pedestrian mobility is the key to attain liveability and inclusivity in a city. However, the gender lens towards understanding the mobility patterns of women and young girls is largely missing from the urban planning process. Due to this exclusion, the majority of Indian cities are not gender friendly. To address this issue, this study tried to propose a 3 step framework for mitigating gender safety issues while a woman walks in a city. The 3 steps involve identifying the key elements of pedestrian mobility; quantitatively evaluating the qualitative parameters; and visual analysis for validating the major issues. This paper presents a pilot study conducted in the city of Kanpur, India. The research was initiated by conducting focus group discussions among 23 participants to map their typical movement patterns and identify 6 key elements of pedestrian mobility. Subsequently, the study conducted a net promoter score (NPS) survey among 423 participants to gauge the safety perception levels on each of the 6 key elements against 5 deduced qualitative parameters via literature review. NPS is a user satisfaction measurement tool which is based on the user perception used by companies and brands. Since urban safety is largely to do with perception, a NPS metric is employed. Further, the paper employed heatmap analysis and derived 3 critical areas based on gender safety perception to deep dive i.e. accessibility and lighting at sidewalks; lack of lighting at underpass; and absence of street furniture at bus stops. Visual analysis was undertaken to understand and validate the respective safety perceptions. The NPS score and visual analysis helped to generate actionable recommendations to enhance the safety perception of women in the city, especially pertaining to pedestrian mobility.