When Safety Is Not Free: Mitigating the Transportation Pink Tax Through Safety-Oriented Policy Interventions

Abstract

Influenced by sociocultural norms and ongoing safety shortcomings in urban transportation systems, women frequently perceive a higher personal risk during routine travel. Building on the concept of the “pink tax” in consumer markets, this study introduces the notion of a transportation pink tax as a gendered safety-compensation burden, the additional expected monetary cost that women incur when safety concerns prompt compensatory behaviors, such as choosing more expensive travel modes. Using a stated preference (SP) experiment conducted in Shanghai (N = 785; 391 females and 394 males), we examine mode choice among metro, ride-hailing, and autonomous robotaxi services. Both multinomial and mixed logit models are employed to estimate gender-differentiated preferences and derive willingness-to-pay (WTP) for safety-related attributes. The results indicate that women place significantly higher marginal utility on safety-enhancing features, including female ride-hailing drivers, advanced in-vehicle security systems, and improved lighting, reflecting a greater safety-compensation premium in their utility functions. For example, women’s WTP for advanced security measures exceeds that of men by 3.90, 26.05, and 27.86 CNY for short-, medium-, and long-distance trips, respectively. Importantly, we show that this marginal safety premium translates into a tangible cost burden when women shift toward higher-cost modes under unsafe conditions. Policy scenario simulations indicate that enhancing metro safety, through measures such as shorter walking distances, CCTV installation, increased security patrols, and improved lighting, could raise women’s metro usage and reduce their monthly travel expenditures by approximately 60–115 CNY, thereby alleviating the gendered safety-compensation burden. These results suggest that transportation gender inequities arise not from inherent preference differences, but from structural safety externalities that disproportionately impact women. Implementing safety-by-design principles in public transit and emerging autonomous mobility services can therefore lower gendered cost burdens and foster more equitable urban mobility.