Night-time Street Safety: Discussion on Women's Mobility at Night

Presenters:
Danielle Berger, Circulate San Diego
Angelica Rocha, Circulate San Diego

When looking at the potential for walking to be a feasible mobility option, safety is a critical factor. Safety and perception of safety must be ensured to encourage users to walk to their destination. Additional challenges for this mobility option arise at night, where visibility is hindered, and research has shown that a higher occurrence of traffic accidents take place. It is also critical to acknowledge that individuals perceive safety differently, and women often feel most threatened by their surroundings at night, negatively impacting their desire to walk. This presentation will discuss Circulate San Diego’s preliminary findings as well as examples of other cities that are working to address the issue of women’s mobility when walking at night. The goal of this presentation is to offer assessment findings, create a dialogue on perception of safety and night friendliness of cities, and identify innovative strategies to address women’s mobility issues when walking at night. This presentation will focus on our process of collecting experience-based data from women living in various neighborhoods of San Diego and overlay this input with the concepts of environmental justice, accessibility, and equity.