Have you ever felt as though you were being undressed with eyes in every direction? That’s typically what it’s like to be a woman once she’s left the safety of her home.
While Calgary’s transportation system is not known to be a safe setting to begin with, for a woman it’s practically a nightmare. All you want to do is put your headphones on and space out while on the C-Train. And then, someone is demanding your time for a conversation you didn’t ask to have.
When you’re a woman taking public transit, you become an instant target and receive unwanted attention. Women don’t have the luxury of being able to take trains or buses carefree, instead they have to hope for the best and expect the worst when travelling from one destination to the next.
The LRT platform becomes a battlefield for survival, as danger could lurk from every corner of the space. This terrifying issue is nothing new, and seems to be a problem that progresses instead of being resolved.
“For many women, the immediate solution to harassment on the bus is to avoid eye contact, travel in the safety of groups or pairs, and prepare for dangerous situations by constantly operating on high alert. For some women, the solution is to stop using the bus altogether. It shouldn’t be this way.”
D. O’Reilly
A CTV News article from 2021 reported a young girl who was sexually assaulted at a bus stop located in Country Village. Another article from 2022 describes a man who sexually assaulted multiple women while making his way to the City Hall train station.
Situations like these make many women afraid to even step foot on a bus or train. For girls who don’t drive it’s especially problematic — public transportation is often the most affordable and convenient way to get around a city. However, the dangers that come with it can’t go unnoticed.
Unfortunately, this concern applies not only to Calgary but to any public transportation anywhere. D. O’Reilly, an author of an article on Women in Urbanism Canada, say in a study that more women than men are likely to get sexually assaulted on public transit.
“For many women, the immediate ‘solution’ to harassment on the bus is to avoid eye contact, travel in the safety of groups or pairs, and prepare for dangerous situations by constantly operating on high alert. For some women, the ‘solution’ is to stop using the bus altogether. It shouldn’t be this way,” wrote O’Reilly.
If traumatic situations such as sexual assaults are experienced by women while simply trying to get to work, school, or anywhere they need to be, it raises the question of whether cities are really making efforts to protect girls from such incidents. Therefore, what are some possible solutions to address this issue?
Problematic issues that impact everyone call for more security. Having more officers patrolling LRT stations and bus stops could be a potential start in the right direction. Another potential option might look like providing free in-person self-defence courses specifically for women.
At the end of the day, women who are impacted by this the most will be the ones who push for these changes. People who don’t experience these alarming concerns might not understand the importance of creating a difference to make the world a little bit safer for all the girls who suffer from simply existing on a train.
