Why women’s safety in parking starts with who’s in the room
By Jade Neville:
I’ve stood in poorly lit parking garages on both sides of the Atlantic, and the feeling is exactly the same. That instinctive shift in awareness — keys ready, pace quickened, a quick text to let someone know you’ve arrived safely. It doesn’t matter whether I’m in a UK multi-storey or a parking garage Stateside. The experience is universal.
As Chair of the Women’s Safety Group for Women in Transport, I see this every day. And the data backs it up — nearly half of women report feeling unsafe walking alone in a parking garage at night. Yet these spaces are so rarely shaped by the people who navigate them with their guard already up.
This matters acutely in the US context. With nearly 45% of Americans having no access to public transportation, parking isn’t a choice for millions of women — it’s a necessity. Suburban sprawl means longer walks across emptier lots, in locations that were planned around the car, not the person getting out of it.
The question I keep asking is: who was in the room when these spaces were designed? Because the absence of diverse perspective means missing the unseen, the unconsidered — and that gets built into concrete and steel that stands for decades.
The parking and mobility industry has a genuine chance to lead on this. Next time you’re developing a program or designing a space, seek out the perspectives that aren’t yet represented. What gets built today shapes how safe women feel for years to come — and that’s something worth building well.
Jade Neville, Chair of the Women’s Safety Group for Women in Transport & Marketing Manager for Trellint. Jade can be reached at jade.neville@trellint.com.
Graphic design credit: Claude (Anthropic)
Forum Question: How can we rethink familiar systems to better serve everyone?