Women’s Issues in Transportation: Summary of the 4th International Conference, Volume 1: Conference Overview and Plenary Papers (2011)

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37 PleNARY SeSSION 6 Where Do We Go from Here? Constructing a Research Agenda Gloria Jeff, Consultant, Presiding Susan Herbel, Cambridge Systematics, Inc., Facilitator Gloria Jeff moderated the closing conference ple-nary session, which revolved around a discussion of the development of a formal research agenda for the Women’s Issues in Transportation standing com- mittee. Jeff began by chronicling the development of the Women’s Issues in Transportation research agenda and TRB standing committee after the first conference on women’s issues in 1978. developing a researCh needs sTaTemenT Susan Herbel Susan Herbel discussed the elements of a research agenda and the process of implementing a research agenda. The most important point discussed was achieving more focus by the TRB Standing Committee on Women’s Issues in Transportation on the task of developing research needs statements. The group brainstormed topics for further research to incorporate into the committee’s research needs statements. The following topics were discussed: • Gender-neutral transportation system: – Develop a definition of a gender-neutral system. – Identify the characteristics of a gender-neutral system with regard to values, needs, choice, con- straints, and impacts. – Consider how the male norm in transportation research and planning can be broken so as to move to more qualitative standards. – Identify the information and knowledge needed to include gender-sensitive metrics in transporta- tion planning. – Investigate what other countries are doing to support gender-equal transport. Consider orga- nizing an international scan tour to address and review global experiences. – Investigate principles or guidelines from other countries related to gender-neutral transport. – Develop principles with respect to women’s travel (e.g., sustainability, climate change). • International component: – Consider how an international component can be incorporated into the research needs state- ment. – Identify key international research that should be incorporated into the research agenda. – Consider hosting the next conference abroad. • Demographics and travel behavior: – Combine qualitative and quantitative approaches by carefully structuring qualitative studies linked to quantitative studies. – Within TRB’s standing committee structure, work with other groups and committees to incor- porate gender and special populations into the sociodemographics of travel demand analyses. – Determine how women and men’s values differ with respect to mode, travel choices, and so forth. – Investigate the importance and role of tran- sit for women and its effects on the sustainable environment.