The Safe and Secure Transport for Women session was conducted in two panel discussions. The first panel was focused on the various measures that have been implemented to address women’s transport needs and what governments can do to improve women’s safety. State Secretary Mattias Landgren of Sweden started his intervention by saying “I am a feminist and Sweden has a feminist government.” Sweden is one of the pioneer countries in gender equality and “transport systems shall be designed to meet the travel needs of women and men.” All levels of governance have to be gender balanced and a lot of work still has to be done in the private sector. In the United States, Acting Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration K. Jane Williams said she was excited to be in the field of transportation under the leadership of Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, who has put many women in leadership roles. Public transport around the world is essential to economic activity, yet women and girls have their daily access to public transport restricted by harassment and assault. In the United States, the Department of Transportation has started many education and training programs to make sure that when complaints are made, transit workers know how to respond. Stations are designed to be well-lit and located with commercial activities. Although crime statistics show that railway is a safe environment, Maria Fiorentino from COLPOFER said it is important that personal perspectives and attitudes towards fear need to be addressed. The speakers agreed that several approaches are required to reduce transport risks for women, stressing cooperation among stakeholders, education and training of transport employees, increasing public awareness, and the use of digital technology. There is also a need to attract young, talented female professionals into the field. Uncertainties surrounding the impact of shared mobility and autonomous vehicle services on women’s safety remain. Dinah Omenefa from the Papua New Guinea Department of Transport added that safety in transport is one of the barriers to engaging women in economic activity in her country.
The second panel discussion focused on experiences in working with local stakeholders. According to José Luis Irigoyen, Director of the Transport and ICT Global Practice at the World Bank, transport is not gender neutral and the World Bank is working to increase awareness in their client countries and to help bring women’s perspectives into the planning and design of infrastructure. Sheila Watson, Deputy Director and Director of Environment and Research, FIA Foundation stated that women use public transport more than men and are more likely to change their modes of transport when there are better alternatives. Hence, women could continue to be the majority users of the new emerging modes, including shared mobility. There is still confusion on what to do when harassment happens. Sonal Shah, Senior Programme Manager at the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) raised the issue of how despite the increase in awareness of women’s safety in public spaces and transport, gender is still not considered when cities are developing their long term transport and investment plans. ITDP is working with “Safetipin” (a personal safety mobile application) to develop a policy brief to provide guidelines for governments. It is important to ensure that women’s views are being considered and inclusive plans are developed by a diverse group of stakeholders. Elisabeth Kotthaus from the European Commission intervened by announcing a new EU platform on women in transport to share best practice. Next steps include ways to harvest and connect all these experiences and good ideas and to continue to work on these issues between international events. Sheila Watson urged everyone to pick up on the energy and go forward with it. Jose Luis Irigoyen reminded everyone that it is also important to bring men into the discussion to work towards the same direction.
Stakeholder inputs:
The 2018 Summit provides a unique opportunity to highlight the importance of providing safe and secure transport for women and also to assess the current level of gender equality in transport. The articles below gather contributions from ITF stakeholders working on this issue and serve as background papers for the session:
Background reading:
Secretary General, COLPOFER
Senior Director Transport and Digital Development Global Practice, The World Bank
State Secretary, Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, Sweden
Senior Programme Manager, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)
Deputy Director & Director of Environment and Research, FIA Foundation
Acting Administrator, Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
Moderator, TV Host and Journalist
