Unwanted Sexual Behaviour and Public Transport: The Imperative for Gender-Sensitive Co-design

This chapter examines how gender-sensitive policy and design is critical to the future of public transportation. Not only does this approach positively impact women’s safety and their access to and use of public transport (and therefore public life), it makes significant contributions to the increasingly important sustainability and viability targets of public transport. The chapter considers the complex issue of safety and the feminist scholarship that has influenced the everyday challenges and risks faced by women internationally. By examining the literature and data around women’s safety in public transport spaces, the research draws on case studies and policy actions in this arena. Advocating for a feminist framework, this chapter concludes by making a case for the critical and central role a gender lens and gender-sensitive codesign have in breaking the hold that technical concerns have over transport.