An Intersectional Approach to Walking Navigation Systems for Women's Urban Safety

Technological solutions such as urban safety applications and safe path planning algorithms have emerged to address gender-based violence and harassment in public spaces. Through an inter-sectional lens, this paper critically analyzes existing safe path planning systems, synthesizing literature from feminist geography, humancomputer interaction, and computer science to examine algorithmic approaches and underlying data infrastructures. We propose inter-sectional design principles that interrogate data sources, design for diverse identities, center structural change, and value embodied community knowledge. This work call on the field to shift from overtechnical optimization to equitable safety design that focuses on the real experiences of women with intersecting identities.