About this case study
As part of its Feminist City work, Edinburgh Council has created a Women’s Safety Audit Proforma. This includes sets of questions around layout and legibility, usability and comfort, eyes on the street, tailored for either reviewing an existing layout or evaluating a proposed design, alongside Women’s Safety Guidance.
The goal was to help designers and project managers think in detail about the safety of women and girls, and ensure that it was fully assessed as part of every project: from the start, during the design process and as part of evaluation and snagging.
The proforma has already been used in different ways as part of ongoing projects, including in two separate locations in the city, Marionville in the east of the city and South St David’s Street in the centre.
In Marionville, two rail lines crossing an important north-south road created a narrow underpass with high walls and poor visibility. The area was prioritised for an ‘active travel’ scheme due to its narrow footways which were below the Council’s desired standard widths, and lack of safe cycling provision.
Once an initial scheme idea had been produced, engagement took place with young people from Leith Academy around the design and women and girls’ safety in particular. This produced specific insights into the importance of lighting, and the safety impact of the narrow footways. The young people were sceptical about the addition of planting and Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) features, because existing landscaping had not been well maintained, creating hidden areas and a feeling that the area was not well looked after.
Marionville, The City of Edinburgh Council.
A different approach was taken for the work on South St Davids Street, near Waverley Station in the centre of Edinburgh. Here the proforma was used by a team of women designers to produce a desk-based audit.
This identified a wide range of issues, including locations with poor lighting and limited visibility, due to both street layout and temporary hoardings, a fragmented cycle network and multiple issues with road crossings. However, the audit did also identify positive aspects of the location, including passive surveillance from hotels and taxi ranks as well as the busy street itself, wide footways in some places and the calming effect of greening at East Prince’s Street Gardens. Engagement insights to date have not only been used in refining the design work but also to identify ways in which safety needed to be considered during the construction process itself.
Results of this initiative
The Women’s Safety Audit has supported decision-making on designing layouts that feel safer and more inclusive. The results of the audit are continuing to inform the developing project designs, and being used to ensure the safety of women and girls is properly considered at every stage of the design process and providing an evidence base to ensure that it has sufficient weight during decision making.
Image credit: The City of Edinburgh Council.