Understanding and Addressing Sexual Harassment in San Francisco Transit Environments

Project Description

Despite investment in transit infrastructure and transit improvements in California over the last 15 years, many transit agencies in California and the U.S. have experienced declining ridership. One contributing factor to this decline is sexual harassment, which disproportionately affects women and gender minorities, causing them to feel unsafe while walking to, waiting for, and using public transportation. In a recent global survey of university students, most women had experienced sexual harassment while using the transit system, but most had not reported these experiences. Transit agencies in the United States are increasingly interested in better understanding and addressing sexual harassment in their systems. But agencies need tools they can easily adopt that can be deployed in on-board surveys or other outreach efforts. Our team has been involved in efforts to create different tools for online surveys, focus groups, and short pop-up engagements. However, most of these tools are not yet well-suited to field data collection efforts. In response, this project will work with the SFMTA to create data collection tools they can deploy and create a toolkit for them and other transit agencies wanting to address harassment on their systems and improve gender equity.