Across the globe, the fear of male violence significantly limits the freedom and participation of women and girls in economic, cultural and social life. This is particularly heightened in relation to the use of public transport, where access and uptake is unevenly distributed across society, with gender a strongly differentiating factor.
As public transport is critical to the full and productive functioning of cities – enabling efficient and sustainable economic connectivity, as well as personal mobility – addressing gender safety and accessibility is essential.
The TramLab project is a collaborative project led by La Trobe University, with partners at Monash University’s XYX Lab and at RMIT.
The recently released TramLab Toolkits brought together pioneering research expertise in violence against women, gender, space and design, and technology-facilitated sexual violence and harassment to investigate the issues and factors impacting on safety and perceptions of safety for women and girls on Victorian public transport.
An essential component of TramLab was the investment in a gender-sensitive approach to evaluating and planning public transport design, policy and infrastructure in the Victorian context.
The research builds on the foundational benefits of gender-equitable transport planning – now so well-recognised that gender equity is one of the 17 broad-based and interdependent Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set by the United Nations in 2015 as targets for 2030.
The research is underpinned by an understanding that women and girls’ access to safe public transport facilitates equitable access to education, training, leisure, employment, and health services.
For the Monash University XYX Lab, the TramLab research built on previous research undertaken in collaboration with Plan International that revealed a concerning prevalence of gender-based violence internationally.
The Unsafe in the City report in 2018 noted that across culture, class and ethnicity, the risks of using public transport were a dominant (and unifying) concern for young women. The report makes clear that for young women, public transport needs to be safe and, importantly, it needs to be perceived as safe.
As such, when commencing the TramLab research, the XYX Lab was committed to understanding how design could impact safety and perceptions of safety for women using public transport. For XYX Lab, the design of a multi-faceted and coordinated set of complementary initiatives and interventions – delivered to stakeholders via the TramLab Toolkits – is the beginning of transformation in the sector.
At the forefront of a gender-sensitive approach to transport planning, policy and design is the incorporation of women’s viewpoints.
Promoting communication and interaction between various experts, users and stakeholders was central to the XYX Lab’s contribution to the TramLab research. The co-design process was able to surface, amplify, and activate the experiences of a wide range of women whose voices are not often heard in transport planning.
The implemented co-design practices meant the research team was able to work closely with diverse groups of women who currently experience transport inequity. The TramLab team was able to draw on their experiences to co-develop solutions that shaped the TramLab Toolkits.
Read more: To design safer parks for women, city planners must listen to their stories
As with all of the XYX Lab research, it’s via the application of a “gender lens” that stereotypes, assumptions and alleged gender-neutral viewpoints can be challenged to counter the status quo.
During COVID, lockdowns and restrictions have resulted in a decrease in mobility trends for certain public spaces, including public transport hubs. This shift has impacted perceptions of safety, with certain areas being more isolated during lockdown and then, in contrast, more concerns about crowds and aerosols spread during non-lockdown times.
Overall, during the pandemic, public transport locations along with the surrounding context – such as parking lots and transport hubs – continue to be unsafe, with women and non-binary people experiencing unease when moving around their communities.
The toolkits
Each toolkit addresses a different aspect of improving the safety of women and girls on public transport in Victoria:
Toolkit 1: Communication Campaigns
Lays out the steps for developing gender-sensitive communication campaigns. The toolkit includes sample communication campaigns that can be drawn on to bring about behavioural change to reduce and prevent violence against women and girls.
Toolkit 2: Placemaking
Details the process for engaging gender-sensitive placemaking strategies to enhance safety for women and girls using public transport. It includes resources to help designers, planners and decision-makers to create safer, more inclusive and accessible cities through public transport.
Toolkit 3: Data
Details the steps for gathering gender-sensitive data for transport spaces. Such data is needed in order to determine the true scale of, and to monitor, trends in sexual violence and harassment against women and girls on public transport, which is largely unknown to providers.
Toolkit 4: Training
Outlines the implementation of gender-sensitive training for public transport service providers and aligned security staff. It includes practical resources and a gender-sensitive curriculum that promotes long-term behavioural change for those working in public transport, such as public service officers, frontline staff, managers, and decision-makers.
Recommendations and outcomes
For women and girls to feel and be safe, they need to have a strong sense of belonging, and the right to occupy public space.
There’s good evidence that tackling some of the physical factors that contribute to negative perceptions of safety can improve the experiences of women and girls, and increase their use of public transport. Any changes to the urban and public spaces need to fully incorporate the perspectives of women.
Co-design is a powerful tool in this context, and TramLab’s recommendations for improving women’s safety involved the participation of diverse groups of women who were able to identify challenges and co-create solutions.
Read more: How to make trams, trains and buses safer for females
Key elements crucial for safety and perceptions of safety to consider include prioritising women’s use, needs and experiences in public transport policy and design of infrastructure; examining all relevant policy documents for hidden gender biases; liaising and consulting with women users through co-design; applying gender-sensitive lighting standards that take women’s perspectives into account, and placing marginalised women at the forefront of the design process.
It’s hoped the toolkits, aimed at the general public, government and public transport providers, policymakers and stakeholders, will raise awareness of the structural, attitudinal, behavioural and spatial factors that influence women and girls’ safety on public transport in Victoria and beyond.
Outcomes from their use will be far-reaching, with application well beyond the trams where they began in applying a gender lens to transport planning and urban design nationally and internationally.
This article was co-authored with XYX Lab research assistant Isabella Webb.
TramLab was a collaborative research project between La Trobe University, Monash University’s XYX Lab, and RMIT.
Associate Professor Nicole Kalms will lead a new Monash short course, Gender Sensitive Training for Inclusive Placemaking, from 28 March. Full details: www.monash.edu/study/
