The FIA Foundation’s “Safe and Sound” report and fact sheet
It is important that women continue to use public transport as we know we need to increase our usage and recognize that many women are already doing this more then men are
there is one. Yet despite women being higher users of public transport there is little extra attention given to their particular needs in planning or oper- ating it. In addition women and men have rather different views on safety and security – a ‘Mars and Venus’ difference!
A GLOBAL CONCERN Affordable and accessible public transport is very important to women and their empowerment in terms of access to health, education and jobs as well as in their daily lives and family duties. However, using public transport is not always an enjoyable experience for them. Recent work looking into the situation of the har- assment of women while using pub- lic transport shows that it is a daily occurrence for many. The whole jour- ney can be risky in many cities espe- cially when women may be travelling at certain times of the day. Surprisingly the FIA Foundation
report Safe and Sound found it occurs extensively in London, Paris and New York. In the UK, one in eight women stated that they felt so unsafe using public transport that they avoided
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using it. It also found that as much as 90% of incidents are not reported. The harassment of women and girls
includes verbal (particularly linked to race, faith or culture), visual or sex- ual and occurs at all points along the journey, on the way to public transport and while actually travelling on buses or trains. Part of the problem is that women often think that it is in some way their fault and so work needs to be done with them to help draw the line as to what is acceptable and what goes beyond this. A new study has
recently been launched to investigate this further and help throw more light onto the subject. Three cities in Latin America – Quito, Ecuador; Buenos Aires; Argentina and Santiago, Chile will use a common methodology to show what may be due to the local context and what is similar in each city. The study will look into the impacts of poor and overcrowded public transport services, as well as how the trip to and from the public transport stop or station may also put them at risk. The study will bring
Women-only railway carriages on in the Middle East, among other places, are quite commonplace
thinkingcities.com
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