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Sexual harassment in transit environments

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Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris

Distinguished Professor

Department of Urban Planning

UCLA

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“For many, it’s a depressing but foregone conclusion: If you’re a woman who rides public transportation, you’re almost guaranteed to experience the kinds of demeaning or threatening encounters that fit squarely within the bounds of the #MeToo conversation.”

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Powers, M. (2017) “Why the #MeToo Movement is a Public Transportation Issue” Washington Post, 20 October 2017.

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Research Questions

  • What are the transit safety concerns and victimization experiences of college students?
    • How do they vary by individual characteristics (gender, sexual orientation, age, race/ethnicity), as well as the physical and social characteristics of the transit setting?
  • How students react to victimization and how victimization affects their mobility and transit travel?
  • Do students feel the need to take precautions in transit environments?
  • What are promising strategies to combat sexual harassment and increase safety in the public transit journey?

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Student demographics in Los Angeles & San Jose samples

Total students

-1,284 students from UCLA, Cal State, LA, Cal State, Northridge

-891 SJSU students

Gender

LA sample: 65% Female

SJ sample: 49% Female

Race/ethnicity

LA: 51% Latino; 19%; Asian; 18% White; 9% Mixed race; 3% African-American

SJ: 58% Asian; 28% White; 26% Latino; 13% Other

LGBTQ Status

LA: 16%

SJ: 9%

Age

LA: 89% between age 18-29

SJ: 88% between age 18-29

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Transit mode

LA: 96% of sample use the bus; 71% use rail

SJ: 53% of sample use the bus; 46% use rail

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Finding 1

Female students are significantly more fearful than male students while traveling by transit

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What did we learn from the LA study?

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Finding 2

Non-white students are on average more fearful than white students while traveling by transit

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What did we learn from the LA study?

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Finding 3

Sexual harassment is a routine experience �for student transit riders, especially for women

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Gender differences among SJ student riders

  • Roughly twice as many women as men reported verbal and non-verbal harassment
  • Women were more likely to have been physically harassed.
  • Women were much more likely than men to take almost every type of safety precaution when using transit
  • But substantial numbers of men are affected as well

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Percent of students

experiencing

different

types of

harassment,

by gender

San Jose study

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Los Angeles study

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Finding 4

Most harassment incidents are never officially reported

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What did we learn from the global study?

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Finding 5

Students report that if there are bystanders in harassment incidents, they typically do not act

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Finding 6

Sexual harassment reduces transit use and leads to precautions

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What did we learn from the LA study?

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San Jose, CA study

Precautions by gender

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Finding 7

Students believe that certain design and policy improvements will help reduce harassment and make them feel safer

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San Jose, CA study

What can make travelling by bus safer?

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Enhancing Women’s Mobility: Fighting Harassment �What needs to happen?

Adopting a multi-pronged approach

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  • Research
  • Design
  • Transport policy
  • Transport technology

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Institute of Transportation Studies

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Video: “Increasing Transit Safety without Policing”

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https://youtu.be/7B3s8W3AHtA

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Where to find this work?

  • LA Metro: “Understanding How Women Travel:

https://transweb.sjsu.edu/research/1810

  • Global harassment study: Transit Crime and Sexual Violence in Cities book – released in June 2020
  • UCLA study:

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9wf3r12k

  • San Jose study:

https://transweb.sjsu.edu/research/1810

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Research group

Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Principal Investigator

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Madeline Brozen, Project Manager

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Hao Ding, Research Assistant

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Miriam Pinski, Research Assistant

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Fariba Siddiq, Research Assistant

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Thank you!