Women say public transport unsafe

Women who responded to a survey said public transport has not been safe, reliable and affordable for them.

Half of the respondents to the survey called, ‘What do women and girls want from urban mobility systems?’, released by cab aggregator Ola on Thursday, also said they do not feel safe to commute in public transport.

Women, who constituted 41% of the 24,023 respondents from 11 cities, pointed to various problems.

“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 while 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. About 35% said it was somewhat safe.

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

A majority of women respondents, 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.

Two-thirds of all the respondents believed that public transport was unreliable and erratic during the initial and last hours of operation.