Violent crime in New York is way, way down, so perhaps it’s more than a coincidence that according to a new poll, women find New York’s public transportation system to be the safest in the world. More than 6,550 “women and gender and city planning experts” responded to a survey conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and pollster YouGov, ranking the safety of public transit among the most populous city in the U.S. and the 15 largest world capitals.
“New York ranked well when women were asked about their overall perception of safety, about traveling at night, confidence in other passengers coming to their aid if needed and the rate of physical harassment on buses and trains,” Thomson Reuters reported.
The sense of security is attributed to an increase of NYPD presence, “more aggressive community policing,” the presence of CCTV security cameras, and more people using public transportation — which reached a record high in September.
While New York women feel safer now than they did in the 1980s, however, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t harassed. On that subject, New York’s ranking plummeted to a depressing 11th place, with 34% of New York women saying they’ve been verbally harassed. Thankfully, the world is starting to realize just how ubiquitous that is, which is the first step to ending it. In the meantime, please be on the lookout for pervs at gropey subway stations
(Photo: Jens Schott Knudsen)
