SMART MOBILITY IN INDIA: PERCEPTIVE COMPARISON BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

Abstract

A significant problem in the study of travel decision-making has been gender disparities in travel behaviour. Social justice includes a crucial component called gender equity in travel services.  When compared to male residents, female residents engage in much more leisure activities and use public transportation. Male inhabitants also exhibit a disproportionately greater journey frequency per day and a disproportionately longer space span of trips, according to the statistics. Based on these gender differences in travel behaviour, a complete transport service system that adjusts to the population structure, particularly the gender structure, is required to offer differentiated and tailored travel services in order to safeguard women's travel rights and to advance transport equity. One of the fastest-growing sectors in the shared economy is the mobility industry, which offers app-based services for using shared vehicles such as bikes, parking, shuttles, and more. The admiration of smartphones and businesses that offer on demand mobility are to blame for its fast expansion. It is said to have altered how people move. But how well do we understand how it affects gender equality in the workplace? The majority of the study on shared mobility is concentrated on examining its effects on commuter usage, congestion, environmental considerations, car ownership, and modal shift, according to the findings of an exploratory review of the literature on the topic. Women's access, safety, ease, and comfort of mobility are given very little consideration, despite the fact that their travel requirements differ significantly from human ones. There are opinions, conjectures, and even professional opinions about the potential effects; nonetheless, the information that is now available plainly demonstrates the fact that these services primarily used by men, suggesting that they are simply deepening sex disparity in our cities. The causes of this gendered tendency can be identified through thorough empirical investigations in both emerging and developed nations, so that they can be addressed in order to achieve equality of gender in urban mobility.