MAN-FREE TRAINS ARE AS BADAS METRO BUSKERS

Have you ever felt uncomfortable, frightened even, when travelling abroad on a city’s public transport system? Many women (in particular) have, with their experiences extending from uncomfortable to genuinely fearful. Some women have experienced physical harassment, of a sexual and non-sexual nature, while others have been verbally abused.

I have travelled alone late at night on various public transport systems and have been lucky, I suppose, in that I never had any negative experiences. A niggling feeling of discom- fort with nothing concrete to back it up is as bad as it got.

A recent survey conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation has asked 6,555 women (including 10 experts in women’s rights, gender equality and urban planning in each location) a number of questions relating to safety on their city’s public transport.

Fifteen of the world’s capital cities were surveyed, plus New York (rather than Washington DC), the most populated US city.

So which fared well and which didn’t? South American cities came out worst, with Bogota in Colombia rock-bottom of the 16 surveyed, just below Mexico City and Lima in Peru. Best of the lot was New York, with those surveyed highlighting the benefits of the CCTV systems on the subway network and also the strong police presence. Despite its rating, however, almost 35% of women attested to being verbally abused on the subway.

Next best were Tokyo, Beijing, London, Seoul and

Paris – the top six. One of the interesting findings concerns Paris, a metro system I have often travelled on without problems. Most women, 85% in fact, felt that if they were being hassled or even attacked, none of their fellow passengers would get involved. Nobody, in other words, would step in to help them. In contrast, almost 50% of the New York women felt that someone sharing their carriage would intervene.

Another issue the survey threw up was ‘women-only’. We have had, recently, a number of hotel groups opting for women-only floors in their hotels, something that has pro- duced varying reactions. I don’t think it’s a good idea, frankly. Similarly, it seems a number of cities have adopted, or are considering, womenonly sections on their trains.

I remember being amazed, in Mumbai, when one of their ‘lady trains’ trundled into the Victoria Terminus station. It’s the norm there. Not surprisingly then, Delhi is one of the capital cities that has already introduced women-only carriages. As have Tokyo, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Manila. And yet, apart from Tokyo which fared very well in the survey, the others came closer to the bottom than the top.

So segregation, it seems, is not really the answer. That’s a view reinforced by a transport specialist with the World Bank, Julie Babinard. She feels it is a short-fix and does not deal with the underlying problems.

So it seems it’s still all something of a work in progress. As are other issues on various transport systems worldwide.

On a lighter note, I may not have felt threatened on the Paris metro, but I do wish they would do something about all those buskers who move from carriage to carriage, crucifying Edith Piaf songs, before passing round the hat and expecting passengers to cough up.