March 2026

“If it’s safe for a child, it’s safe for everyone”: How intuitive design supercharges transport inclusivity

For Rebecka Gunnarsson, president of the Transport Professionals Australia’s (TPA) Victoria and Tasmania branch and a principal consultant at Veitch Lister, the complexity and intellectual challenge of transport projects was a key drawcard to the industry.

As the transport industry looks for ways to make its contribution in removing systemic barriers and improving equality, Rebecka points to an idea from her native Sweden with the potential to lift inclusivity in more ways than one.

“Working in Sweden, we talked a lot about the child perspective,” she says.

“If it's intuitive enough for a child, if it's safe for a child, then it's safe for everyone.”    

She says this approach can support a wide range of disadvantaged groups from people living with disabilities to those with language difficulties.

“This approach is not about planning for men or for women,” she says. “It’s about planning for children, and for it to be ideal, safe and easy to understand and use for everyone.”

Rebecka says this thinking encourages transport professionals to look beyond ‘how it’s always been done’ to ensure final designs and approaches are inclusive to all users.

A case in point, according to Rebecka, is how historically crash test dummies have been built to the specifications of the average adult male.

“Safety is still often optimised around an average adult male, how they sit in the car and how they're built. That needs to change, and is changing, but slowly.,” she explains.

Rebecka, who lists the Canberra Light Rail Stage 2B and the Streamlining Hoddle Street among some of her career highlights, says furthering inclusivity in the transport industry applies not only to end users but also professionals in the largely male-dominated sector.

“You do keep hearing of the same experiences from womenin the industry not always feeling included or missing out on the same opportunities, such as promotions, being able to talk with clients, or being considered for big projects.

“It’s not everyone, and it’s not every company, and in most cases it’s not anything that anyone is trying to do. I rarely think it's malicious – I think it’s just the structure, a culture that’s been around for a long period of time.”

It’s a culture that Rebecka has seen change over the past decade, which is partly a byproduct of simply having more women in the sector.

“I definitely think it’s improved in the past 10 years. I'm hoping that it will continue to improve, and naturally it will as there are more women in the industry,” she says.

“When it comes to things like mentorship or guiding young women, I would say to just be fearless, but that's easier said than done….and it’s helpful if there is another senior woman who they can talk to.”

For Rebecka it’s also about connections.

“TPA was one of the first groups that I joined when I moved to Australia because I was very aware that leaving Sweden also left my whole network behind,” she says.

“I thought TPA would be a great opportunity to get to know a good group of people, to build my network, and to understand what was going on in the industry. It really has been that for me 100 per cent.

“There are a lot of really passionate people in the industry, which is fantastic. I think it’s what really pushes it forward.”