Abstract:
Sexual harassment in public transport is an undisputed social hazard associated with
(in)formal public transit systems. Incidents occur all over the globe, in the developed world,
as well as in developing world settings. Apart from suffering the abuse itself, passengers
are negatively impacted when fear of becoming a victim starts to limit their free and
unencumbered access to the opportunities (be it economic, education, healthcare, social
or leisure) that transportation can connect them to. A Kenyan study in 2015 reports 54% of
female respondents had experienced some form of gender-based violence while in public
transport. The consequence of the related fear could encourage and exacerbate
inequalities within societies affected.
Various role-players within, and connected to, the transport system, can influence this
state of affairs. Being a cross-disciplinary problem, and one falling outside the scope of
traditional transport planning and management practice, a lack of knowledge on where to
start addressing the problem prevails. To breach this gap, the SHE CAN tool was
developed between 2019 and 2022.
This paper describes the SHE CAN tool, its contents and structure and how it can be used
by stakeholders to mitigate this negative impact of public transport and introduces the tool
to the South African transport fraternity.
