TramLAB: Improving the Safety of Women and Girls on Public Transport

This project produced 4 tool kits:

• Communication Strategy about Sexual Harassment on Public Transport [PDF 905.6KB]
• Placemaking Case Study in Darebin Council [PDF 3.1MB]
• Public Transport Data Collection [PDF 1.3MB]
• Training and Awareness for Public Service Providers [PDF 666KB]

If you require any of these documents in an alternative format please contact the University on (03) 9479 8809 or email us at a.taft@latrobe.edu.au.

Providing evidence and recommendations for the enhanced safety of women and girls on public transport in Victoria

There is a spectrum of sexual assault and harassment that a wide diversity of women and girls experience every day in their journeys to, on board and from public transport to home. These journeys can generate fear and anxiety that mean many women change their behaviours, the routes they take and the level of vigilance they enact.

In 2019 the La Trobe University team conducted 19 stakeholder interviews across seven organisations to explore what initiatives exist to improve women’s safety on public transport and where barriers to change might be present; interviewed 41 female students and staff who have experienced fear in their transport journeys to our Bundoora campus to hear about their experiences; analysed available data from public transport providers and the police to identify improvements in data collection methods and how trends in women’s safety could be monitored; and undertook an extensive literature review to ascertain what initiatives, evaluations and evidence-based practices exist both nationally and internationally.

From this research, XYX lab team members organised a workshop that brought together women from diverse backgrounds, stakeholders and designers to discuss, imagine and create a vision for a safer public transport journey. In 2020, the findings from the research were used to pilot an intervention on public transport.

Research team: Angela Taft, Leesa Hooker, Jess Ison; in collaboration with Kirsty Forsdike, La Trobe University; Nicole Kalms, Gene Bawden, Gill Matthewson, Hannah Korsmeyer and Isabella Webb, Monash University XYX Lab; Nicola Henry, RMIT University

This project receives funding from the Victorian Department of Transport.