There is a substantial gap in creating gender-responsive public transport systems, despite the growing recognition of gender mainstreaming in urban transport. This gap stems from gender-blind data used by public transport authorities resulting in the inadvertent exclusion of women and girls from public transport planning and service provision. Traditional data sources, such as household surveys and census, often fail to provide sufficient insights into the dynamic nature of public transport usage due to their limited scope.
The digitalisation of public transport offers an opportunity to collect disaggregated data, as big data is generated through digital ticketing, automatic vehicle location systems, passenger counting systems and more. However, the potential of big data can only be realised if insights derived from it are used for policy and operational improvements. A global literature review of public transport ticketing data usage reveals that gender disaggregated data is either not collected or, if collected, is not used to address service gaps through a gendered lens. This is often due to privacy regulations and the limited analytical capacities of public transport authorities. Collecting and analysing disaggregated data by gender, age and disability can help public transport services meet the diverse needs of users.
This note provides key entry points for collecting gender, age and disability disaggregated ticketing data, using a case study of a mega South Asian city—Delhi, India. The approach can be adapted for other cities based on their level of digitalisation of ticketing systems. In Delhi’s public transport system, tickets can be purchased through multiple channels—electronic ticketing machines (ETMs), mobile phone applications, closed-loop smart cards and the national common mobility card (NCMC). The table below outlines the types of data collected through the bus-based public transport ticketing system in Delhi.
