Only 9% of women feel safe in public transport

When it comes to women, public transport has a long way to go in improving safety, reliability and affordability with half of the respondents in a survey stating that they do not feel safe while commuting in public transport.

Ola on Thursday released a survey on 'What do women and girls want from urban mobility systems?'. Women, who constituted 41% of the 24,023 respondents from 11 cities, have pointed at various problems that need to be addressed.

"While gruesome incidents of violence against women have received attention...this data might point towards the daily harassment like staring, groping, catcalls, whistling which needs to be measured," the survey report noted.

Only 9% of women from 11 cities, including Bengaluru, felt it was safe to use public transport. Nearly 35% of men and women agreed that public transport was unsafe during the night and 3% felt it was extremely unsafe at any given time.

A whopping 89% of respondents, including men, said that the information about public transport system was not easily accessible. Three-fourths of them stated that it was very uncomfortable.

A large majority of women, 77% of them, felt that there was a need to improve last mile connectivity to reduce time spent in accessing public transport.

The survey showed that women were willing to use public transport with 96% prioritising affordability, coverage, frequency, safety and comfort. Affordability was a major factor for 40%, while 26% stressed on convenience as reasons for taking public transport. However, 15% of the respondents said they had no other option, which makes it all the more imperative for governments to improve the sector.