Course:
Transport Planning
Group of courses: Engineering
Students should receive an overview of the theoretical and empirical approaches of women's and gender studies to the area of urban and traffic planning. This should include gender-based reflection on the theories, concepts and methods of transportation research and their application in transport planning and policy. It should also include developing practical design ideas for transport planning from a gender perspective. Students should learn that transport planning is a form of planning of public (urban) space.
A central aspect of women's and gender studies in the area of transport planning is the interrelationship between mobility and spatial structure. In feminist transport studies, transportation is viewed as the social organisation of spatial/temporal structures. A core concept here is the category of reproduction. Its significance for spatial development and personal mobility represents the starting point for gender analyses and feminist concepts in transport planning.
Gender should be viewed as a cross-disciplinary task, otherwise it is not possible for students to gain a proper understanding of mobility in transport. The close connection between urban development and transport planning is well documented from the point of view of gender.
Nevertheless, a special gender module should be included in engineering degrees. Where no such module exists, the technical aspects of transport planning often dominate over analytical approaches to understanding mobility, how it arises and what the demand for it is.
We recommend taking a joint approach to the different subject areas, interlinking gender content across the different disciplines early on.
Thus it would be possible to combine gender teaching for urban planning and transport planning at BA level, while investigating specific transport issues in greater detail within the MA.