Key Takeaways

• Globally, women have taken leading roles in several rapid and systemic changes ranging from tactical interventions and programmatic scaling to policy instruments and social provisioning. Their leadership patterns emphasize empathy, long-term vision, care, alliance-building and prioritizing impact over power.
• Female perspectives are not a niche addition. Diverse experiences, needs and leadership styles are fundamental to creating inclusive cities.

Summary

1. Key examples of urban transformation:
   • • Montreal, Canada: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the mayor initiated a seasonal pedestrianization program. 11 shopping and commercial streets were closed to cars for months to allow businesses to continue operating in a socially distanced way.
     • Paris, France: Mayoral leadership expanded a targeted school-streets program to over 200 sites in under five years and is now part of the mobility network. Similarly, the city advanced protected bike routes to reclaim curb space and reduce car dominance. 
     • Brussels, Belgium: Good move initiative that used traffic calming and circulation measures to filter out 40% of through traffic passing through the city centre by putting planter boxes to create a blanket 30 km/h speed limit and expanding pedestrianized networks. 
     • Barcelona, Spain: Superblock initiative that created outdoor living rooms, giving the public space back to people, creating space for play, and creating an environment that supports children’s independent mobility.
     • Sydney, Australia: The city had only 15km of protected bike lanes before COVID-19. But within one year after the pandemic, they built 150 km of protected lanes, and now the city is on its way to becoming a full-blown cycling city through the leadership of the mayor and the bicycle program managers.
     • Delhi, India: A city with immense challenges around the dominance of men in public spaces and restricted movement of women and girls, saw the rise of a social enterprise through the Safetipin initiative that uses technology and crowdsourced data to map safety scores and dark spots in the city, aiding urban planning and decision-making.
     • Bogota, Colombia: Expansion of the cycling network beyond affluent areas to make sure that everyone has more equitable transportation access. Additionally, the Care Blocks program paired mobility hubs with childcare, laundry and training to unlock carers’ (mostly women’s) labour-market access.
     • Manila, Philippines: When the city shut down its public transit, a woman activist initiated pop-up lanes that, through workshops and partnerships (including the Dutch Cycling Embassy and the World Bank), scaled to ~500 km of permanent cycling infrastructure.
     • Tirana, Albania: Given the high proportion of young people and families, city planners started looking at the city from a children’s perspective. Initiatives included the expansion of the school streets program, providing mobility options for people who don’t drive, creating all-ages playgrounds, and creating environments that welcome children and young girls to spend time in the city.
     • Kampala, Uganda: Persistent advocacy by a young woman produced pop-up bike lanes during COVID-19, which were later converted to permanent non-motorized corridors. She also self-funded a university bike-share system to seed demand and usage.
2. Scaling programs requires policy instruments such as speed defaults, parking/storage rules, budget allocation, coalition-building with businesses, caregivers, NGOs, etc., and reframing solutions through children-first and gender-inclusive narratives.

How can Cities apply these learnings?

1. Pair quick tactical wins with institutional partners such as city transport, NGOs, international partners, etc., to secure technical backing.
2. Mandate short evaluation windows with predefined success metrics (usage increase, speed reduction, perceived safety), then update design manuals and budgets when pilots pass thresholds, and create a cross-department steering group (transport, public health, parks, schools) for successful scaling.

Ideas for further reading

1. Women Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformation- Book by Chris Bruntlett and Melissa Bruntlett
2. Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives – Book by Chris Bruntlett and Melissa Bruntlett
3. Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality – Book by Chris Bruntlett and Melissa Bruntlett

Ideas for further research

1. Evaluate the Care Blocks program’s effect on women’s employment and time poverty in Latin American pilot sites.
2. Distil reproducible sequences that female leaders used to scale interventions in contexts with weak administrative capacity.