Select Committee on Transport Written Evidence


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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