Women's Health Matters encourage women to contribute to Canberra Safety Map

The footpath under Drakeford Drive in Kambah and the Canberra Hospital multi-storey car park are among seven locations where women reported a feeling of unease due to factors including a lack of street lights.

The locations across the city were identified through an initiative of Women's Health Matters which will be used to influence the design of public spaces.

The initiative asks Canberra women to nominate locations where they have felt unsafe and, using common responses from previous surveys, to select their reasons why.

Data from the digital resource, the Canberra Safety Map, will be provided to the ACT government to inform decision-making.

Women's Health Matters chief executive officer Marcia Williams said whereas once places such as Haig Park were commonly reported as a problem, they were now seeing design issues in some of the newer suburbs.

"In the intervening years there's been a lot done in Haig Park and you can see the results," she said.

"A few years ago almost 50 per cent of reports were from Haig Park. This year I don't think we've had any."

Ms Williams said walkways underneath busy roads in more recently developed areas had been identified, as women couldn't be seen.

"If no one can observe you, there's always that fear there for women if they were to run into trouble," she said.

Ms Williams said providing adequate lighting had been an issue in Canberra, however, governments were picking up on the effect urban planning had on women's safety in public.

"Just before the election we flagged that with the Minister for Transport Chris Steel and we presented a series of photos to him at a series of stops where there was no one in sight and no fences and the lights were so low that no one would see you if something was to happen to you," she said.

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"The government did announce the government was picking up on those recommendations and putting lighting into those areas."

The ACT government secured $900,000 in Commonwealth funding to improve lighting across Canberra. This will include 29 publicly identified areas of concern.

The work was expected to commence in early 2021 and be completed by the end of the year, according to a spokesperson.