APPENDIX 32
Memorandum submitted by the Equal Opportunities
Commission
INTRODUCTION
The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) is
the statutory body for sex equality in Great Britain. Our specific
statutory duties include "to promote equality of opportunity
between women and men generally" (Sex Discrimination Act,
Section 53 (1) (b)).
Gender is a key determinant of the type of transport
we use and when we use it. As well as being an important service
in its own right, transport has a significant impact on men's
and women's abilities to access employment and training as well
as public services like education and health.
EOC welcomes the Committee's Inquiry into bus
services, which make up a significant area of transport across
the UK. We would urge you to put gender equality high on your
agenda within the areas you consider. Our submission will outline
why gender equality issues are relevant to bus services and other
types of transport provision, and what the new statutory gender
equality duty will mean for the bus sector.
KEY MESSAGES
1. EOC research shows that a person's gender
has a striking impact on the way in which they use transport.
We found that individuals in the lowest income group (a category
which will contain many lone parent households, which are predominantly
headed by women) were twice as likely to make trips by public
transport (bus, coach or rail) as those in the highest real income
group in 2002. Conversely, more than half of all trips by those
in the highest income group were made as car drivers, compared
with less than a quarter of those in the lowest income group.
It is also true that a higher proportion of adult men than adult
women have full car driving licences in all age groups. In 2003,
81% of adult males, compared with only 61% of adult females, had
a licence.
2. Women and men also travel for different
purposes. Men are more likely to do so for commuting and business
reasons, whereas women are more likely to do so for shopping or
taking children to school.
3. However, our research shows that these
differences have not been taken into account and it seems apparent
that the present transport system has largely been constructed
for men by men. The evidence for this is provided by the nature
of vehicle design; the extent of radial routing (ie routes that
run from suburb to centre) in public transport, which means that
passengers have to travel to the centre and out again on a radial
leg to arrive at an area adjacent to their starting points; and
the emphasis on the peak-time periods in the provision of bus
and rail services.
4. This gender-bias in transport has a huge
impact on the delivery and uptake of other services. Women's poorer
access to transport provision has affected their access to training
and employment opportunities, as well as to a range of specific
services, such as local hospitals.
5. This evidence demonstrates that transport
policies which take account of gender differences in travel patterns
can play a role in reducing structural disadvantages, social exclusion
and the income gap between women and men.
6. The gender equality duty, included in
the Equality Act and due to come into force in April 2007, puts
a duty on public bodies (and private companies which are acting
in a public capacity) to promote sex equality and eliminate discrimination.
Therefore, public authorities with responsibility for commissioning
contracts to transport service providers (herein referred to as
commissioning bodies) will be required by law to to assess and
design services that meet the different transport needs of men
and women.
EVIDENCE BASE
7. The EOC recently published two reports
into gender and transport and copies are included with this submission.
The first, "Promoting gender equality in transport"
explores why commissioning bodies should build gender equality
into their services. The second report "Gender and Bus Travel
in Wales" was published by EOC Wales, it analyses the ways
in which men's and women's lifestyles differ and how service quality
can falter when planners take a "one-size-fits-all"
approach. The reports illustrate why services should be designed
with the different needs of men and women in mind. The following
sections outlines some of their key findings.
TRANSPORT SECTOR
8. Gender differences that impact on
transport use:
— Social and economic factors, physical
differences between women and men and gender differences in power
and vulnerability all have an impact on the differences in transport
use between women and men.
— Women often have the primary responsibility
in the household for childcare, the care of older, sick or disabled
relatives and for domestic work. They have different time use
patterns and employment characteristics to men and fewer financial
resources. These factors influence the journeys they make and
the times at which they travel in different ways to those of men.
This means that the routes, timing and vehicles provided often
do not meet their needs.
— The design of buses still takes insufficient
account of the difficulties experienced by women who are encumbered
by accompanying children or shopping or both, or people who are
mobility restricted.
— Women are more likely than men to
feel insecure and vulnerable to attack, which can restrict their
travel at particular times, for example at night. Fear of crime
and harassment on public transport significantly limits women's
mobility.
9. Gender differences in transport use:
— Although women and men make a similar
number of trips each year, men tend to travel further than women;
in 2002, adult males in Britain travelled over 9,000 miles on
average, whereas adult females traveled only 6,000 miles on average.
— Men are also much more likely than
women to travel as car drivers, while women are more likely to
travel as car passengers, or on foot. In 2002, 49% of men's trips
were conducted as car drivers, compared with only 35% of women's
trips. Also where households have a car, men are more likely to
have access.
— Women are slightly more likely than
men to travel by public transport, especially to work, with their
greater use of buses outweighing men's slightly greater use of
trains.
— Average commuting time is slightly
longer for men than for women, with by far the biggest gender
difference being for those who commute by rail. Women are more
than twice as likely as men to walk to work.
— Women's lower income means they are
less able to afford both private and public transport.
— It is also important to note that
the huge number of journeys that women cannot make due to poor
transport are not visible in transport statistics.
10. Limitations of data sources and
research evidence:
— Published information on the travel
patterns of women and men is much more extensive than in the past.
Nevertheless, data are often not disaggregated by gender and it
is difficult to examine variations between different groups of
women. For example, it is hard to compare the travel patterns
and experiences of women with and without dependent children,
or white and black and ethnic minority women.
— Few qualitative studies have specifically
examined men's transport needs and experiences, while studies
of women's needs have tended to be relatively small scale in nature.
11. Impact of transport on other sectors:
— Transport policy and provision has
a significant impact on efforts to improve service delivery in
the public sector. However, policy-makers have generally shown
a lack of interest in the impact of gender-bias in transport on
the delivery and uptake of other services.
— Government policies in employment,
environment, health and social inclusion are undermined by the
transport problems many women face in accessing public services
such as training, education, health services and childcare. Women
are greater users of public services than men and so poor transport
limits their involvement in economic, political and social life.This
particularly affects lower income groups.
— Research shows that this failure
of the transport system to serve the needs of women on low incomes
impedes their access to hospitals and therefore ante-natal care.
This in turn may affect the health of their babies, and potentially
has a significant impact on health inequalities.
— Poor public transport contributes
to the cost to the NHS from missed appointments. Official statistics
show that, in England alone, the cost of missed appointments is
between £250 million and £400 million per annum. As
each missed appointment is said to cost the NHS around £70,
this sum suggests a very large number of missed appointments in
Britain. Even if a relatively small proportion are due to women
being particularly afflicted by poor transport access, the development
of a transport system that improved the ability of women to access
hospital appointments would save the NHS significant amounts of
money.
— Women's poorer access to transport
provision than men has also affected their access to training
and employment opportunities. Transport difficulties, such as
high cost, poor reliability and a lack of availability, act as
a barrier to the transition to work and the gaining of skills.
For example, the National Adult Learning Survey conducted for
the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in 2001 found that
many adults experienced transport difficulties in getting to courses.
Amongst those who overcame such difficulties (and were actively
learning), it was more likely to be perceived as a problem by
women (12%) than by men (6%). Unsurprisingly, it was perceived
as a barrier to learning by a larger number (15%) of non-learners.
For those non-learners, however, transport difficulties could
be experienced by 22% of women.
— Transport problems impede the purchase
of healthy food by poorer families because it is harder for them
to travel to supermarkets. In 2001, 13% of people without access
to cars in England reported that they found getting to supermarkets
difficult, compared with only 5% of those with access to a car.
— Gender-sensitive transport policies
could therefore contribute to the closing of the gender pay gap,
improving the health of low-income families and making public
services such as the NHS more available and efficient.
12. Employment in the transport sector:
— The transport sector remains male-dominated;
few women are employed in the sector except in travel service
occupations (eg as travel agents). The great majority of transport
drivers and operatives are male, as are those employed in vehicle
trades (eg as car mechanics).
— Women are also under-represented
in professional and managerial positions within the sector, or
in transport-related public bodies; hence their influence over
the decision-making process is very limited.
— The most recent National Employers
Skills Survey found that hard-to-fill vacancies and skill-shortage
vacancies as a percentage of all vacancies were above average
in both the transport equipment and transport sectors. Employers
in the sector who wish to address skills shortages could usefully
place greater focus on targeting women in their recruitment, education
and training strategies.
13. Consultation of users:
— A review of key policy documents
shows that the involvement of users is still an under-developed
area of transport thinking. Consideration of the gender differences
connected with such involvement is even less developed. Without
improved consultation and greater efforts to rectify gender-bias
in consultation, there is little scope for an increased understanding
of how gender influences the transport needs of users in transport
policy and practice.
BUS TRAVEL
IN WALES
14. Bus safety:
— Female bus users are nearly twice
as likely as male bus users to say they feel unsafe travelling
by bus at night. In 2000, our survey found that 27% of women bus
users and 15% of men bus users felt unsafe on buses at night.
— There is not a great deal of data
available on bus-related crime, as it is not a crime type for
police recording purposes. However, a recent Home Office study
found that incidents of public transport-related crime was between
three and four times higher in 2002 than it had been in 1999.
Other research has found that men are, on average, slightly more
likely than women to be victims of violent crime on public transport
(although women are more likely than men to be victims of sexual
crime, and both are equally likely to be victims of theft or pickpocketing).
— Crime on buses is not easy for police
to engage with—buses are not technically public places,
and they move between districts, making it difficult to register
where a crime took place. But the issue of passenger security
is being addressed at local and national level, including through
Community Safety Partnerships around Wales, and these initiatives
are helping to compensate for the fact that bus crime is not as
high a policing priority as railway crime, without a dedicated
police force such as the British Transport Police.
15. Access:
— Women are more likely than men to
have a physical condition which makes it difficult to use the
bus. This is particularly the case among older people. In 1990,
10% of men aged 45 and over and 14% of women aged 45 and over
said they had a physical problem or disability that made using
the bus difficult.
— In 1993 the Welsh Consumer Council
carried out a qualitative study looking at facilities for people
travelling with luggage on public transport. The study concluded
that many of the identified problems affected women more than
men.
— Provision of storage space is limited
by regulations on size, construction and use.
— A balance has to be sought between
providing enough storage space for shopping bags, pushchairs,
wheelchairs and mobility scooters, and providing adequate seating
capacity.
— The problem of limited storage space
is exacerbated when people in wheelchairs and people with pushchairs
have to compete for room. Many bus operators do not have clear
policies on the number of buggies that can be allowed on each
bus.
— In 1997 the Welsh Consumer Council
carried out a research study where respondents gave their views
on the comfort of buses. In general, men were a little more likely
than women to say that the bus was "fine", although
men and women brought up a number of comfort issues, including
the hardness of the seats, overcrowding and poor suspension. In
addition, a significant proportion of female respondents talked
about the lack of storage space for prams, pushchairs and shopping,
and the discomfort when buses are overcrowded and overheated in
summertime.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations have come out
of the two EOC research reports.
16. Employment:
— Linkages should be made with initiatives
such as Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) to
consider transport planning as a potential sector for encouragement
of women recruits.
— The Department for Transport could
make progress by implementing a strategy for improving women's
representation in senior positions and on decision-making boards
in the transport sector is required.
17. Policy
— Guidance on consultation and participation
should be strengthened with clear examples of how to undertake
participation exercises in a gender-balanced manner.
— Monitoring for LTPs should be gender
disaggregated as a matter of course. Many local authorities are
doing this for cycling. Guidance needs to be strengthened to make
sure this happens in other areas of monitoring.
— Guidance around the implementation
of Accessibility Planning should encourage the involvement of
a wide range of user groups including women users in description
of problems, the interpretation of technical analysis and development
of solutions.
— Encouragement needs to be given to
the equality dimensions of local authorities' Community Strategies
to address equality issues in local transport policy.
— Encouragement needs to be given to
Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to consider access of patients and
visitors to healthcare and particularly women.
18. Best practice:
— A report of international case studies
and best practice examples of implementing gender equality in
the development of transport policy could be provided to local
authorities to promote innovative practice in this area.
— A network of local authorities and
operators should be developed to facilitate and encourage best
practice amongst local authorities in the area of gender equality.
Developing a Beacon Council theme on gender equality in transport
could be one such approach.
19. Safety:
— Police, transport commissioning bodies
and central and local government should work together, through
Crime and Disorder partnerships and other mechanisms, to ensure
that people travelling on buses and using bus stations and bus
stops not only feel safe but are safe: by (1) ensuring that crime
on buses is a high priority for policing and targets set for reduction
of bus-related crime, (2) by remodelling bus stations as secure
environments, (3) by ensuring bus stops are well lit and monitored
by CCTV, with emergency phones and (4) by installing CCTV on all
buses, with guards on main urban and night routes.
20. Planning:
— Rethinking finance around public
transport. For example, the SEU report states that 11% of the
10 year transport plan goes to buses whilst 40% goes to passenger
rail. More women compared to men use buses whilst the reverse
is the case for rail. A case could be made to address the gender
bias inherent in this financing arrangement.
21. Access:
— Bus companies should continue to
seek better bus interior design, with maximum flexibility for
the transport of pushchairs, wheelchairs, luggage and shopping
trolleys. Guidance should be issued to crews on these areas.
THE WAY
AHEAD
22. The experience of Dublin buses demonstrates
how building gender equality into transport design can lead to
improved take up and design of services. In response to the Irish
National Development Plan commitment to mainstream gender equality
in all programmes and projects, Dublin Buses surveyed non-users
as well as users in order to identify unmet needs. The results
were used to develop a number of pilots. Women make multiple trips
on public transport facilities, bringing children to school or
care, shopping, visiting older or sick relatives, as well as travelling
to work. For men, the main journey is commuting to the workplace.
There are specific factors (such as income and caring responsibilities)
that limit women's transport choices and therefore entry into
the labour market, education and training opportunities as well
as leisure opportunities. The pilots focused on the afternoon
period of 2.00 pm to 6.00 pm when Dublin Buses had spare capacity.
The pilots:
— extended existing bus routes;
— provided cheaper multi-trip fares;
and
— targeted women and older people.
There was excellent take up of the new routes
(35% increase in usage) particularly by older women. There was
also an increase in city centre economic activity (13% in 2002)
that was believed to be directly linked to the increasing numbers
of people coming into the city centre during the day.
23. Unfortunately, the Department for Transport
missed an opportunity to reap similar benefits when it produced
revised guidance on full Local Transport Plans (LTPs) in December
2004 (DfT, 2004f) There was virtually no reference to gender issues.
Any future guidance thus needs to give clear and strong emphasis
to the inclusion of gender and transport in their development.
It should include information on how to meet the identified needs
of different groups, including addressing issues of route, frequency
and reliability.
24. In EOC research, interviewees from the
transport policy sector suggested that progress could be helped
by a lead from Central government—by disseminating good
practice, through enforcement of the gender duty and monitoring
of gender analysis in transport. There is a need for a central
government function to drive forward gender analysis in transport
and Ministers must be made more aware of the issues.
25. Also, government policies in other areas
need to recognize the fact that employment, environment, health
and social exclusion policies are undermined by the transport
barriers that many women face when accessing public services.
26. Transport planners and providers also
have a role to play. They must ensure that any market research
they undertake takes full account of gender differences. In the
area of policy development, commissioning bodies must recognise
the necessity of consulting men and women about their differing
transport needs.
27. Gender issues should not only be considered
in the planning of services, but also in the employment practices
of transport providers. Many hard-to-fill vacancies exist in the
transport sector but employers fail to make use of the potential
skills of women to tackle these shortages. For example, women
make up only 4% of those employed as transport drivers and operatives
and just 11% of transport and distribution managers. Employers
could address this by targeting women in their recruitment, education
and training strategies.
28. Interviewees from the transport sector
outlined a number of ways by which gender equality can be more
effectively promoted. These included changing ministerial attitudes,
improving women's representation in senior positions and sharing
and disseminating good practice, integrating transport and social
policy. Suggestions which require action from both government
and transport providers, as well as the recognition of the far
reaching consequences of gender-biased transport provision.
THE GENDER
EQUALITY DUTY
29. Although some good practice can be found
in terms of bus services which meet the different needs of men
and women, this is not common practice. The forthcoming gender
equality duty means that commissioning bodies will have to take
gender equality seriously. The Equality Act of 2006 amends the
Sex Discrimination Act 1975 to place a statutory duty on all public
authorities, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard
to the need:
— to eliminate unlawful discrimination
and harassment; and
— to promote equality of opportunity
between men and women.
This is known as "the general duty"
and will come into effect on 6 April 2007. As public bodies, the
Department for Transport and transport authorities will be bound
by the duty. This will mean they will have to develop a gender
equality action plan which sets out a number of gender equality
objectives that they will need to deliver. Gender impact assessments
of key services will need to be undertaken and action will need
to be taken on equal pay.
30. Private bus companies will also be captured
by the duty as it is the responsibility of the commissioning agency
to ensure that the duty is met by services that are procured or
contracted out. So this could mean in terms of employment, that
an authority could exclude from consideration any company that
cannot demonstrate how it is complying with the 1970 Equal Pay
Act. In terms of services it could mean that an authority could
ask for service providers to demonstrate how they are meeting
the different transport needs of men and women, eg in terms of
safety, access, timings, routes and costs.
CONCLUSION
31. The gender equality duty provides a
new compulsion for commissioning bodies and transport providers
to take gender equality seriously in their policies, services
and employment. Despite the overwhelming evidence that men and
women have differing transport needs, they have been overlooked
by the majority of transport providers. As well as the obvious
impact on individual users (and non-users) this has wide-ranging
consequences for the economy and on the effectiveness of public
policy.
26 May 2006
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