Women’s Safety in Urban Transportation Network in PMC Area: Perception, Challenges, and Policy Intervention

Abstract

The issue of woman safety in urban transit remains a critical problem and it has a direct impact on their mobility and socio-economic involvement, along with access to key opportunities. This study reviews the perceptions of women, experiences in commuting to the city and their safety in the urban transport system of the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC). The study employed a combined research approach in which primary data were collected from a sample of one hundred female commuters across four representative wards through structured questionnaires, supported by GIS-based mapping of routes and major transport hotspots. The results highlight that most women feel that the use of public transport is unsafe, which is explained by the fact that they consider it to be overcrowded, harassed, insufficiently lit, poorly surveilled, ineffective connectivity during the first and the last mile and inadequate patrol of the police. Chi-Square tests prove the presence of statistically significant interaction between the perception of safety and the type of transport and the access to women-only services. Regardless of the presence of the national and state-level programs, such as the Nirbhaya Fund, ERSS-112, Pink Buses and CCTV programs, they are not followed in practice consistently. Thus, the main purpose of the study is to assess women’s perceptions regarding safety in the PMC urban transportation network, to identify key challenges and risk factors women face while commuting in the PMC Area, to evaluate the effectiveness of existing policy interventions aimed at promoting women’s safety and to recommend policy measures and interventions for improving women’s safety in the urban transportation system in the PMC Area based on findings.

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