Imagine Bike Lanes Being Cleared Before Roads

Here’s one way to address equitable public policy

Images from, “Sustainable Gender Equality – a film about gender mainstreaming in practice”

A few days ago, Streetsblog USA author Angie Schmitt shared an interesting article which features a video on Sweden’s efforts towards gender equality in transportation for all ages. Through analysis, Sweden learned that its systems were prioritizing men and it was time to change the routine.

How? Through gender mainstreaming–a way to resolve issues without being prejudice or ignorant. “It’s about justice for women and men, girls and boys, but it’s also about efficiency and quality.” Gender mainstreaming delves into a deeper level of equality, and in this particular video, focuses on the safety of everyone when it comes to public transportation.

In Pittsburgh, we see first-hand the issues of uncleared, icy sidewalks that lead to injuries of everyone especially the elderly. After a snowfall in Sweden, roads are plowed to accommodate drivers. Swedish women typically walk and cycle while there is a larger volume of male drivers.

With a statistic like “three times more pedestrians than motorists are injured in icy conditions related accidents,” this leaves the consequences for women and children’s commutes to be more drastic. And as it turns out, hospital care in Sweden for those injured from icy condition related accidents costs four times more than winter road maintenance.

Not only does Sweden focus on the safety of pedestrians, they also focus their new found gender mainstreaming values when it comes to public transportation and hospitalization. From beginning to offer women in Kalma an opportunity to walk home from the bus safely by dropping them off wherever they needed, to ensuring that hospital dispatch personnel are giving as much attention to female patients as male, Sweden has really stepped up their gender mainstreaming game.

We know that euro-centric ways of living and doing aren’t fit for all nations, but isn’t gender equality? Hopefully, this can be something that other countries and cities can not only learn from, but also take part in.


Learn more about WMNBikePGH…

…Bike Pittsburgh’s program welcome to womyn, femmes, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people. Visit the program home page.

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