Evaluating Accessibility of Female Caregivers in Philadelphia from a Safety Perspective

Transportation networks in major U.S. cities are built and managed around a very narrow subset of transit riders: able-bodied, solo men traveling to and from a white-collar job in the city center. Despite the evidence of women as primary users of public transportation, the U.S. planning field has lagged in incorporating this knowledge into practice. This thesis attempts to address this gap in transportation accessibility planning by evaluating the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) public transportation network in Philadelphia in terms of personal safety. The study employs a geographic information systems (GIS) analysis to illustrate how safety metrics could be incorporated into accessibility measurements as a practical method of evaluating transit networks from a female-centered perspective.