Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Chicago's Transit Changes Policies Due to Women Activists

By

Thanks to the efforts of the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team (YWAT) who have been documenting the high rates of sexual harassment on public transportation in Chicago, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is expanding its policies on how bus and rail operators deal with harassers. The YWAT surveyed 639 CTA riders and found that half had been sexually harassed on the system and 13 percent had been assaulted.

From the Chicago Sun Times (where the article is a homepage feature!):

“Before, if a customer felt she was being threatened or harassed by another passenger, the operator may just decide to ‘keep an eye’ on the situation, or tell the offender to move, or call the Control Center if they felt the situation needed an immediate response, according to Amy Kovalan, CTA’s senior vice president of safety, security and risk compliance.

‘Now, operators are instructed to ask an offending individual to stop the behavior,’ Kovalan said. ‘If that person does not cease, the operator immediately will call the Control Center and will be instructed on how to proceed.’ The rule applies to any kind of harassment — not just sexual.

The CTA also is updating its public safety tips brochure to include information about harassment, and how to report it.

In addition, the CTA is expanding its ‘If you see something, say something’ posters and audio announcements to include sexual harassment. Harassment complaints to the CTA customer service line will now have a special code, so that the agency can better monitor the problem.

YWAT just came out with their survey a few weeks ago, so to have the CTA already respond with changes is huge!! Congratulations to the YWAT. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: I really admire them and their work!

I also think this is very encouraging for people who live in other areas where there are high rates of harassment on public transportation but little being done to address it. A group of individuals can make a difference!

Share

Chicago’s Transit Changes Policies Due to Women Activists

By

Thanks to the efforts of the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team (YWAT) who have been documenting the high rates of sexual harassment on public transportation in Chicago, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is expanding its policies on how bus and rail operators deal with harassers. The YWAT surveyed 639 CTA riders and found that half had been sexually harassed on the system and 13 percent had been assaulted.

From the Chicago Sun Times (where the article is a homepage feature!):

“Before, if a customer felt she was being threatened or harassed by another passenger, the operator may just decide to ‘keep an eye’ on the situation, or tell the offender to move, or call the Control Center if they felt the situation needed an immediate response, according to Amy Kovalan, CTA’s senior vice president of safety, security and risk compliance.

‘Now, operators are instructed to ask an offending individual to stop the behavior,’ Kovalan said. ‘If that person does not cease, the operator immediately will call the Control Center and will be instructed on how to proceed.’ The rule applies to any kind of harassment — not just sexual.

The CTA also is updating its public safety tips brochure to include information about harassment, and how to report it.

In addition, the CTA is expanding its ‘If you see something, say something’ posters and audio announcements to include sexual harassment. Harassment complaints to the CTA customer service line will now have a special code, so that the agency can better monitor the problem.

YWAT just came out with their survey a few weeks ago, so to have the CTA already respond with changes is huge!! Congratulations to the YWAT. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: I really admire them and their work!

I also think this is very encouraging for people who live in other areas where there are high rates of harassment on public transportation but little being done to address it. A group of individuals can make a difference!

Share

Harassment on Public Transportation in Singapore

By

I came across this last night:

“4 out of 10 Singapore Management University (SMU) students in our survey [of 135 women] have been sexually harassed while taking either a bus or a train. Sexual harassment is something that happens everyday on public transport, and it’s wrong. Yet, people don’t talk about it. This is something that needs to change.

So a team of us at SMU have set out to bring about this change by organizing an open forum, emPOWER!HOUSE, to discuss issues relating to sexual harassment on public transport.”

The forum took place in March, 2009, and was sponsored by AWARE; I couldn’t find information about how it went (have you?).

In the comments of the post, there is an interesting discussion about the sample size, what is sexual harassment, how accurate the survey information is, etc.

And regardless of what how many respondents said they were sexually harassed, the young woman who helped conduct the survey said she and many of her friends have been sexually harassed on public transportation and, when I hope a societal goal is to have 0 people getting harassed, that shows there is a problem. And with the number of countries that have had to engage in anti-sexual harassment subway campaigns or created women–only cars to handle the harassment, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t a real problem in  Singapore too. In fact, just two weeks ago women-only cars were suggested in Beijing in part becasue of sexual harassment.

Share