The proposed solution is the “Inclusive Night Safety Toolkit,” a spatially-driven, gender-inclusive urban planning framework designed to improve women’s safety and comfort in Amsterdam’s public spaces. The solution integrates evidence-based spatial analysis, inclusive design principles, and community participation to redesign nighttime public environments in ways that reduce fear, increase accessibility, and create equitable mobility options for women and other vulnerable groups. The Toolkit operates through four mutually reinforcing components:
(1) Spatial Safety Mapping A targeted diagnostic combining spatial data, lighting patterns, path configurations, land-use characteristics, and women’s lived experiences. This mapping identifies unsafe segments and exclusionary spatial conditions that disproportionately affect women after dark. A comparative reference is drawn from Seoul’s small-scale nighttime safety audits, illustrating how micro-level assessments can reveal gaps not captured by traditional crime data.
(2) Inclusive Nightscape Design Urban design interventions that improve visibility, eliminate blind corners, reorganize path networks, and enhance openness. These modifications follow inclusive planning principles—prioritizing accessibility, intuitive navigation, and social surveillance in order to transform public spaces into environments where all users feel they belong.
(3) Gender-Sensitive Mobility Network Reconfiguration Reconfiguring walking routes, transit access points, and public-space circulation to ensure safe, continuous movement after dark. This includes reinforcing high-visibility paths with adequate lighting and supporting equitable mobility for women travelling alone. A minimal reference to Korean practice—such as Seoul’s improvement of lighting along major pedestrian corridors—demonstrates the feasibility of low-cost, high-impact upgrades
(4) Community Co-Design with Diverse User Groups Structured participation processes—such as safety walks and collaborative workshops—enable women to articulate spatial barriers and co-create interventions. This ensures that planning decisions reflect diverse lived realities and align with principles of equity and spatial justice.
