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Minibus taxis are often referred to as the  “pillars of public transport” as they get millions of Saffas to and fro in a day.

The privately owned and run taxis are not operated by the state and yet account for 66.5% of all public transport on the country’s roads.

Most minibus taxi commuters hail from lower-income and historically marginalised communities of colour, still feeling the effects of apartheid-era spatial planning. They often live far from their workplaces or schools, leading to longer commuting times.

The sad reality is that taxis aren’t always safe for women. Women’s lives in South Africa are often characterised by the threat of sexual violence, and taxis are just like many other public spaces in a country, grappling with some of the highest rates of sexual violence and murders of women by men.

Jarred H Martin, a senior lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of Pretoria conducted a study to close the gap on the information out there about women’s experiences of feeling unsafe in the mobile spaces they use for daily commuting, per The Conversation.

The study explores women’s experiences of feeling threatened with sexual violence while commuting on minibus taxis, and what they did to reduce the risks. The hope is that the findings can be used by the government, the minibus taxi industry and commuter rights groups to help make commuting safer for women.

Martin interviewed 14 women who used minibus taxis daily, all of whom were students at a university in Gauteng and were aged between 19 and 32.

The participants all said they often felt anxious and hypervigilant when commuting. This echoes research which has pointed to the “enduringly stressful impact of minibus taxi commuting” for women.

His findings point to one of the biggest dilemmas that women face daily; the trade-off between safety and convenience.

“If I finish a shift [at work] at ten or eleven [at night], only [minibus] taxis are still on at that time, so it’s the most convenient thing for me to use … But if I didn’t have to use it I really wouldn’t … [I]t’s so stressful; but I don’t have any option that’s that convenient. You don’t feel safe at all,” noted one participant.

The participants had all honed a sharp awareness of their usual routes, using this instinct to gauge their safety as the taxi journey unfolded, especially when commuting alone or at night. Another shared:

“[A]ll I can do is try monitor what’s going on. Is [the driver] going down the right road? What turn-off does he take? Is it the usual route? Is he going slow or speeding up?”

Meanwhile, the cramped space – a minibus taxi’s legal capacity is between 10 and 15 passengers – sometimes causes distressing interactions with men.

One said: “As a woman you never use much space on a seat because some guys will sit next to you and they just push their legs open. Like wide. Their one leg will push against your leg. Even if you’re uncomfortable with it. He will always force his leg against yours. It can be very intimidating. You can feel that he expects you to give him that room on the seat.”

Alarmingly, the women all viewed being unsafe, whether on taxis or anywhere else, as part of their everyday lived experience as women in South Africa.

This becomes a poignant realisation when recalling the 2019 murder of Cape Town University student Uyinene Mrwetyana in a Post Office building, as one participant noted:

“As a South African woman I’m always being on guard, you know? Taxi, bus, train – it’s just like any other place in this country. You can get raped anywhere. Even if you’re just at the post office, like Uyinene. A man can get you anywhere. It’s come to that point where you must automatically assume that any man who sits next to you wants to rape you.”

Martin notes that violence against women arises within a context where it’s normal to devalue women.

“That must change, or the threat of sexual violence will persist, regardless of how women commute,” he writes.

Besides addressing these psychological elements of women’s safety, he also suggests an overhaul of the design of commuter transport infrastructure, particularly for the minibus taxi industry that needs to be reimagined through a gendered perspective.

Better lighting, more surveillance, clear sightlines, as well as trained public safety personnel and emergency communication systems are just some of the design elements to consider for making women feel safer.

The decline of reliable services, especially urban buses and trains, has turned many commuters into “transit captives” of the minibus taxi industry. In this sense, there is also a pressing need for a wider variety of safe, affordable, and efficient public transport options to allow women to have more agency and to make safer choices.

[source:theconversation]