It's public transportation day chez Sarah

There was a blog post up at Feministing about women-only commuter trains that have begun to run in four of India's largest cities.

Unlike the ongoing debate in Israel about buses running into Orthodox neighbourhoods that force women to sit at the back and men at the front, the Indian commuter trains were offered as an option after women complained about harassment - physical and verbal - on the train on their way to work.

Like any public place, public transportation offers plenty of opportunities for inappropriate and unwanted attention, and the very anonymity of these spaces can contribute to the sense that such actions will go unpunished. I remember arriving in tears to work one morning in Brussels because a man had grabbed my breast while walking past me. It's not really a nice way to start your day.

The blogger that posted about these trains on Feministing made an interesting point, which is as follows:

But still, to stop men harassing women, the police removed the women instead of educating those who harass. Perhaps this is a first-world concern about a developing nation, but the message sent is that the presence of women causes harassment, rather than the idea that those who prefer to objectify women and project their sexual desires onto strangers cause harassment.

I have to admit that even though these trains provide freedom of choice for women (they're an option, not a requirement) my initial reaction was also that the onus should not have to be on women to go to a separate train car, but rather on the men to stop being huge dongs.

Still, just the fact that the problem is being acknowledged is a huge step. Similar to the policies on both Montreal and Ottawa's bus systems of asking the driver to stop the bus between stops to lessen the walk home in the dark, simple consideration for people's basic safety and security is a good start.