The increase in vehicular speeds, removal of street hawkers, and addition of gated neighborhoods are all seen as contributing to a rise in crimes against women in New Delhi and other Indian cities. How can planning and design reverse this trend?
Neyaz Farooqui looks at some of the factors that are thought to have contributed to the rise in sexual violence in India's cities. Auto-centric planning, the placement of streetlights, and the segregation of cities into zones of exclusion each have a role in producing unsafe social and physical environments for women.
"Urban planners and designers argue that apart from better policing, gender-sensitive city planning and design can help make India’s cities safer for women," explains Farooqui. "Patterns of crime in a city, according to these experts, vary according to its urban design."
UPDATE (9/30): It appears as though some cities are already taking steps to create women-only spaces in response to the rise in sexual violence. Writing in The Washington Post, Annie Gowen notes that women-only buses, cabs, travel groups, and parks are emerging in several cities.
Read the full story: Can Urban Planning Help India’s Cities Reduce Sexual Violence ?
India’s Women-only ‘Pink Parks:’ Safe Refuge or Segregated Enclaves?
Women-only public spaces can provide safety and community, but critics argue they fail to address deeper structural problems.
German Cities Subsidize Taxis for Women Amid Wave of Violence
Free or low-cost taxi rides can help women navigate cities more safely, but critics say the programs don't address the root causes of violence against women.
How Effective Street Lighting Improves Women’s Mobility
A lack of effective lighting in streets, parks, and transit stations limits the places where many women and other vulnerable groups feel safe traveling at night.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Los Angeles just elected an urban planner as its mayor
Transportation analysts are optimistic that Raman will be more aggressive in addressing transit issues than Bass.
Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax survives legal challenge
A panel of judges found that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate injury as a result of New York City's implementation of the tax.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority