A GIS-SUPPORTED ANALYSIS ON ACCESSIBILITY IN WOMEN-FRIENDLY SOCIETIES: EVALUATION OF WALKING ROUTES AT NIGHT HOURS

Year 2023, Volume: 24 Issue: 4 - Eskişehir Technical University Journal of Science and Technology A - Applied Sciences and Engineering, 275 - 288, 27.12.2023

Ezgi Tükel , K. Mert Çubukçu , Saye Nihan Çabuk , Gürkan Öztürk

https://doi.org/10.18038/estubtda.1283488

Abstract

Developing safe cities is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a vital factor in creating sustainable communities and cities. From this point, ensuring that women use urban spaces accessibly and safely is crucial. This study aims to determine the walking routes between the most used venues in Kadıköy district, Türkiye, open at night hours, and the transportation points using GIS methods. Density analysis was made using Foursquare check-in data collected from 4 different categories in July 2021, and the closest walking routes between the locations and the bus stops were developed using closest facility analysis. The results were classified in a 5-scale suitability range, in which 5 refers to the highest density and more accessible (closest) bus stops. Zone 2 has 266 shortest routes, while zone 5 has 90 shortest routes and there are many eating and drinking places on the shortest routes. Lastly, some sample routes from the densest and least dense routes were observed using Google Street views in terms of safety criteria. The results and the approach used in this study are expected to encourage the local authorities and the decision-makers to improve safe access between the venues and transportation points.

Keywords

Women-friendly societies, Walking routes, Closest facility, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Night hours

Supporting Institution

TÜBİTAK

Project Number

19C200

Thanks

Tübitak

References

• [1] United Nations. Sustainable Development Goals – Decade of Action. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/decade-of-action/. 2022 (accessed February 22 2022).
• [2] Loukaitou-Sideris A. Fear and safety in transit environments from the 'women's perspective. Security journal. 2014;27(2):242-56.
• [3] Tekinbaş E. Women-friendly cities. TMMOB Şehir Plancıları Odası Haber Bülteni, Kadın Özel Eki 2. 2013; 20-23.
• [4] Demirbilek S. Investigation of gender discrimination sociologically. Finance Politics & Economic Reviews. 2007;44(511):12-27.
• [5] Kaypak Ş. Looking at the city from a gender perspective. Niğde Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi. 2014;7(1):344.
• [6] Yumuş A. Economic, social and political dimensions of the understanding of gender equality within the framework of development plans. PhD diss., Kadının Statüsü Genel Müdürlüğü, 2011.
• [7] Jaeckel M, van Geldermalsen M. Gender sensitive urban planing. Urbanism & Gender. 2006.
• [8] Trench S, Oc T, Tiesdell S. Safer cities for women. In Women and Social Policy. Palgrave, London 1997; 215-223.
• [9] Hildegard LG, Gahr B, Ritz-Timme S. Dealing with victims of domestic violence. In Bundesgesundheitsblatt-Gesundheitsforschung-Gesundheitsschutz. 2016; 59, 1.
• [10] Rivadeneyra A T, Dodero A L, Mehndiratta S R., Alves B, Deakin E. Reducing gender-based violence in public transportation strategy design for Mexico City, Mexico. Transportation Research Record 2015; 2531: 187–194.
• [11] Alfonzo M A. To walk or not to walk. The hierarchy of walking needs. Environment and Behavior 2005; 37: 808.
• [12] Landis B W, Vattikuti V R., Ottenberg R M, McLeod D S, Guttenplan M. Modeling the roadside walking environment: pedestrian level of service. Transportation Research Record 2001; 1773: 82-88.
• [13] Wang Y, Chau C K, Ng W Y, Leung T M. A review on the effects of physical built environment attributes on enhancing walking and cycling activity levels within residential neighbourhoods. Cities 2016; 50: 1–15.
• [14] Meetiyagoda L. Pedestrian safety in Kandy heritage city, Sri Lanka: Lessons from world heritage cities. Sustainable Cities and Society 2018; 38: 301-308.
• [15] Pardo-Bosch F, Blanco A, Sesé E, Ezcurra F, Pujadas P. Sustainable strategy for the implementation of energy efficient smart public lighting in urban areas: Case study in San Sebastian. Sustainable Cities and Society 2022; 76: 103-454.
• [16] Suk J Y, Walter R J. New nighttime roadway lighting documentation applied to public safety at night: A case study in San Antonio, Texas. Sustainable Cities and Society 2019; 46:101-459.
• [17] Boomsma C, Steg L. The effect of information and values on acceptability of educed street lighting. Journal of Environmental Psychology 2014; 39: 22-31.
• [18] Kim D, Park S. Improving community street lighting using CPTED: A case study of three communities in Korea. Sustainable Cities and Society 2017; 28: 233-241.
• [19] Umaña-Barrios N, Gil A S. How can spatial design promote inclusivity, gender equality and overall sustainability in Costa Rica's urban mobility system? Procedia Engineering 2017; 198:1018–1035.
• [20] Campisi T, Nahiduzzaman K M, Akgün N, Ticali D, Tesoriere G. Gender equality on developing transport system in Sicily: A consideration on a regional scale. AIP Conference Proceedings 2021; 23-43.
• [21] Tanzam N. Gendered mobilities in developing countries: The case of (urban) Uganda. Gendered Mobilities 2012; 159.
• [22] Ceylan S. Gender issues in the built environment: A study on the role of architecture for a sustainable society. International Journal of Criminology and Sociology 2020; 9: 748–762.
• [23] Lawton C A, Kallai J. Gender differences in wayfinding strategies and anxiety about wayfinding: A cross-cultural comparison. Sex Roles 2002; 47: 389–401.
• [24] Erkan N, Sevin B. An examination of fear of crime: Kadikoy example. Planlama-Planning 2018; 28(3).
• [25] Paydar M, Kamani-Fard A, Etminani-Ghasrodashti R. Perceived security of women in relation to their path choice toward sustainable neighbourhood in Santiago, Chile. Cities 2017; 60: 289-300.
• [26] Stark J, Meschik M. Women’s everyday mobility: Frightening situations and their impacts on travel behaviour. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour 2018; 54: 311-23.
• [27] Reid LW, Konrad M. The gender gap in fear: Assessing the interactive effects of gender and perceived risk on fear of crime. Sociological Spectrum 2004; 24: 399–425.
• [28] Stark J, Meschik M. Women’s constrained travel behavior: Austrian case study. TR News 2019; May(321).
• [29] Farrington D P, Welsh, B. C. Measuring the effects of improved street lighting on crime: A reply to Dr Marchant 1. British Journal of Criminology 2004; 44: 448-467.
• [30 Tien JM. Street lighting projects. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice; 1979.
• [31] Şener Ü, Demirdirek H. Gender equality report card for 81 provinces. Türkiye Ekonomi. 2014.
• [32] Baykan D. A book of women-friendly urban planning and design principles for local governments. Ankara, Uzerler Matbaacılık. 2015.
• [33] Güney ME, Üstündağ B. Evaluation of urban open green areas within the scope of women-friendly city approach: Bornova example. Journal of Süleyman Demirel University Institute of Social Sciences Year 2020; 1: 38-65.
• [34] Reeves D. Putting women and gender in the frame–A consideration of gender in the Global Report on Human Settlement Planning Sustainable Cities 2009. Habitat International. 2014; 43: 293-8.
• [35] Statistics Database of TUIK Official Website: http://www.tuik.gov.tr/, February 2022.
• [36] Krautheimer R. Three Christian capitals: topography and politics. University of California Press; 1983.
• [37] Toprak Z. La population d’Istanbul dans les premières années de la République. Travaux et Recherches en Turquie. Louvain, Peeters 1982; 2: 63-70.
• [38] Murat S. Population and education structure of Kadıköy (Türkiye and Istanbul comparative). In Journal of Social Policy Conferences 2007; 52: 1-64.
• [39] Üsküplü T, Çolakoğlu B. The use of social network data and space syntax analysis in developing urban strategies: Kadıköy Example. Megaron 2019; 1:14(2).
• [40] Bonnier A, Finné M, Weiberg E. Examining land-use through GIS-Based kernel density estimation: a Re-Evaluation of legacy data from the berbati-limnes survey. Journal of Field Archaeology. 2019 Feb 17;44(2):70-83.
• [41] Bintliff J. The complete archaeology of Greece: from hunter-gatherers to the 20th century AD. John Wiley & Sons; 2012 May 21.
• [42] Guo M, Han C, Guan Q, Huang Y, Xie Z. A universal parallel scheduling approach to polyline and polygon vector data buffer analysis on conventional GIS platforms. Transactions in GIS. 2020; 24(6):1630-54.
• [43] Canepa B. Bursting the bubble: Determining the transit-oriented development's walkable limits. Transportation Research Record. 2007; 1992: 28-34.
• [44] Olszewski P, Wibowo SS. Using equivalent walking distance to assess pedestrian accessibility to transit stations in Singapore. Transportation research record. 2005;1927(1):38-45.
• [45] Ahmed S, Ibrahim RF, Hefny HA. GIS-based network analysis for the roads network of the Greater Cairo area. InProc. of 2nd International Conference on Applied Research in Computer Science and Engineering. 2017.
• [46] Das D, Ojha AK, Kramsapi H, Baruah PP, Dutta MK. Road network analysis of Guwahati city using GIS. SN Applied Sciences. 2019 Aug;1(8):1-1.
• [47] Basharat M, Shah HR, Hameed N. Landslide susceptibility mapping using GIS and weighted overlay method: a case study from NW Himalayas, Pakistan. Arabian Journal of Geosciences. 2016; 9(4): 1-9.
• [48] Halder B, Bandyopadhyay J, Banik P. Assessment of hospital 'sites' suitability by spatial information technologies using AHP and GIS-based multi-criteria approach of Rajpur–Sonarpur Municipality. Modeling Earth Systems and Environment. 2020; 6(4): 2581-96.
• [49] Hassan I, Javed MA, Asif M, Luqman M, Ahmad SR, Ahmad A, Akhtar S, Hussain B. Weighted overlay-based land suitability analysis of agriculture land in Azad Jammu and Kashmir using GIS and AHP. Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences. 2020;1: 57(6).
• [50] Herbei M, Ular R, Dragomir L. Map overlay in GIS. Transactions on Hydrotechnics, Politehnica University Timisoara. 2011; 56: 70.