Why the stroller debate on Toronto public transit is a gendered fight

I woke up this morning to a city full of snow and a Twitter timeline on fire.

Elsa La Rosa’s complaint yesterday to the Toronto Transit Commission has kicked off, not only a staff report, but a noisy city-wide airing of grievances about “SUV-sized strollers” taking up too much space on crowded buses. It’s easy to blame the parents (for whom taking an actual SUV is probably out of the question). But let’s get real: This isn’t about individual choices. It’s about gender and class and how they intersect in public space. And when I say “gender”, I mean “women.”

Public transit is a women’s issue. The TTC’s ridership is nearly 60% female. Women still tend to be the primary caretakers of children, and that is reflected in the unique way women use transit.

We do more of our travel on public transit: Chances are, it’s a mother struggling to get their stroller on the bus or down the subway station stairs. We take more chain trips, that is making multiple stops to run errands. This is why a #WiTOpoli — Women in Toronto Politics — deputation to the city’s budget committee recommended adopting time-based transfers, which would make chain trips much more convenient and less expensive.

Our transit system was never designed for the needs of anyone with a wheelchair or a stroller. But for a vast number of people, mostly women, it is not a choice. It is the only option available, and it has just become a little more unwelcoming.

What would women-and-children-first transit look like?

It would be more frequent, to prevent overcrowding. It would be fully accessible for anyone with mobility issues. And by provincial mandate, the TTC is working towards a fully accessible system, but budget constraints mean the date has been pushed back from 2020 to 2025. You’d never see a bus driver breezing by someone waiting in a wheelchair or with a stroller, which does happen regularly.  A transit system that accommodates people with disabilities and mobility issues will, funnily enough, also accommodate people with strollers and, by extension, make more room for everyone else.

But rather than demanding the resources to create a transit system that prioritizes the riders with the greatest needs, this debate about strollers and over-crowded transit systems is blaming riders with the greatest needs. It is asking riders with the greatest needs to stay behind and catch the next one.

We can do better.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Neville Park