Sometimes, however, gender suddenly becomes a very big deal, such as when I am the only woman in a meeting and am asked to distribute the notes I’m taking; or at transportation conferences where even outspoken women like myself can find it’s an uphill battle to join the conversation.

As far as what a woman’s different perspective on transportation might be, I would say that any area where expectations and norms differ would be fair game. Clothing, cargo capacity, anything about kids, perceptions of safety (though I hate to admit that one), household economic choices, all could be particular (though hardly exclusive) women’s issues, and they are not all being covered out there in the blogs as much as they could — the emphasis of a lot of transportation research and writing is on the traditional commute, which is of course relevant to women as well, though statistically speaking perhaps a bit more relevant to men.

Oh and don’t forget la differance! Here’s some coverage we published of a major women’s bicycling issue:

http://bikeportland.org/2008/06/05/biking-with-the-flow-the-challenges-for-women-during-that-time-of-the-month/

Thanks for making this connection, Sarah, I’m looking forward to hearing more from other network members about their thoughts…

Among transportation bloggers that I know of, women are a minority. Specifically, among Streetsblog Network contributors whose sex I know for sure, more than 130 are men and 22 are women (that’s a very rough count, but you get the point).

By the way, if you know of blogs that aren’t in the network and should be, please let me know. We rely on readers to alert us to new blogs or noteworthy ones that we’ve overlooked. Go to http://streetsblog.net and click on “Nominate a blog” at the top if you’ve got a suggestion.

There’s nothing unusual about a blog that’s written by a woman. But Eric Britton makes the point in his extensive post that women might very well see transportation issues differently than men. It would be helpful to have more of their perspectives included in the debate.

And Daniel…whether men have a strange fixation with motors or not, surely transportation policy isn’t all about motors. I’m just saying.

I can tell you that the emphasis in the transit industry has been the attraction of “choice riders,” those that choose to use transit and are not stuck with it because they are too old, poor or disabled to ride. And the general impression is that no one would choose to ride a bus that stops and waits every block — one block for the light, the next for a stop.

The data shows, however, that bus ridership in NY has been a female thing, with women of 1970s vintage unwilling to ride the subway because they were afraid of crime. That’s where the demand from express buses — direct from the predominantly White areas on the fringe of he city to Manhattan — has come from.

I wonder if the transit gender gap has survived the reduction in crime and increase in ridership? But one thing is for sure, with perpetual incumbency and inbreeding, the political class ideas about transit are locked in place from 30 years ago.