Women's night bus fears highlighted in survey

While female passengers are happy using buses during the day, they feel less safe travelling at night, a survey says

Fewer than half of women feel safe catching the bus at night, a survey by regional leaders in West Yorkshire suggests.

While the vast majority felt safe travelling by bus during the day, only 41% of female respondents said the same applied after dark.

The results came after a survey of 1,800 people from across the region by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA).

A councillor called the revelations "horrific".

Just over two thirds of men who responded (68%) said they felt safe catching a bus at night, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Results from the survey also suggested that more than half of women under the age of 35 had decided to drive or get a taxi instead of getting a bus or train because of fears over crime or harassment.

Similarly, only 43% of elderly people who responded said they felt safe travelling by bus in the dark, as did 36% of disabled people.

'Women need to feel safe'

The figures were presented to councillors from across West Yorkshire at a WYCA transport committee meeting on Wednesday.

Bradford Labour councillor Caroline Firth said: "These stats are horrific. Women need to feel safe using public transport at night.”

Calling for more work to be done on the issue, she added: “We need to find out if this fear is based on perception or fact. What are the combined authority and the police going to do about this?

“We know that women have less choice to access a car than men.”

Simon Warburton, executive director of transport for the authority, acknowledged that decisions about bus transport were largely made by men.

He said: “Is the transport industry too white and too male? Yes, undoubtedly it is.

“I think where we benefit in West Yorkshire is very strong political leadership that isn’t white and male.”

He said the authority was “very serious” about getting more women into senior transport roles – and this would help give a female perspective to issues effecting public transport.

Last year, WYCA announced new PCSO patrols on board the region's buses, in a bid to crack down on anti-social behaviour and improve women's safety.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.