Paratransit services and women mobility in urban areas: a scoping review

Paratransit services dominate urban public road transportation in the developing world. Their services are preferred by socially disadvantaged sections, including females. The mobility of females is an integral component of women’s empowerment. Hence, improving their mobility needs special attention, especially in developing countries where females’ travel behaviour often varies from men. Feasibility and operation of transport services often depend on land use, socio-economic conditions, and user perceptions. On this note, the present paper tries to identify research prospects for women’s demand and satisfaction in availing paratransit services in the backdrop of the supply of the latter by scoping review. 194 publications reveal various research themes such as travel behaviour concerning the urban landscape, the role of paratransit in an urban landscape, the transport disadvantage of females and paratransit being currently an option to bridge the gap of this disadvantage. Various bibliometric analyses were carried out, which includes text mining through word cloud and network analysis on keyword linkages. Content analysis has inferred justification provided through studied publications. A few research gaps have been identified. These include dependence between paratransit services and urban landscape features, and, females’ perceptions and satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the service level of paratransits. By addressing these gaps and assessing their necessity, research on these can improvise policies inclusive of female mobility needs by maintaining equity in paratransit service provision for urban layout for sustainable city planning in developing nations.