Our Women’s Safety Baseline Survey, the largest UK survey of transport professionals on violence against women and girls, has found that 74% have never had any training on the subject – and that every official design guide tested is unknown to at least three-quarters of the sector.
The people who plan, design, build and run Britain’s transport network overwhelmingly recognise that women and girls face distinct safety risks on it. Almost none of them feel equipped to act, according to our first sector-wide survey of its kind.
The Women’s Safety Baseline Survey, delivered in partnership with WSP, gathered 737 responses from transport professionals across every mode and the wider built environment. It is one of the largest UK surveys to date focused on practitioners rather than passengers.
Its central finding is a gap between concern and capability:
61% of respondents say they are extremely or very aware of the safety challenges women and girls face.
Only 8% feel very confident identifying ways to improve it.
74% have received no training or guidance of any kind.
The survey also found that the professional guidance already written for the sector is barely reaching it. Respondents were tested on eight established UK and international design and policy resources, including toolkits published by the Greater London Authority, the Royal Town Planning Institute and West Yorkshire Combined Authority. Not one had been used by more than 4% of respondents. Not one was known to more than 22%.
“This research fills a crucial gap. We know that people working across the transport sector care deeply about inclusive outcomes. We understand our practical ability to uplift accessibility for all to new jobs, new skills, new networks and a better quality of life. We also recognise that real and perceived safety challenges are the everyday lived experience of too many women and girls. The next step is clear, consistent and joined-up leadership to target lasting change with confidence, taking inclusive design seriously from the earliest planning stages through to operations.”
Individual commitment is outpacing organisational mandate
Seventy-one per cent of practitioners say they see women’s safety as part of their own professional responsibility. Just 18% say their employer treats it as a clear priority – a 53-point gap between personal conviction and institutional backing.
The sector also struggles to measure the problem it is being asked to solve. Only 12% of respondents believe their organisation regularly collects and actively uses safety data broken down by gender, age or ethnicity. Three times as many (36%) do not know whether their organisation collects this data at all.
“The transport sector clearly recognises the importance of addressing the safety of women and girls across our network. More than that, transport professionals feel personally responsible for tackling the issue. However, we have made limited progress on recommendations for better training, data collection and consistent reporting set out by the VAWG Transport Champion, Laura Shoaf and Anne Shaw, in 2021. We are at a pivotal moment for transport across the UK. Women in Transport is calling on our sector leaders to demonstrate their commitment to the safety of women and girls’ and equip transport professionals with the training and confidence to make travelling across the UK feel safe for everyone. This is our collective responsibility. The time to work together is now.”
The cheapest lever is the strongest one
Asked what would most enable progress, respondents named strong leadership commitment more often than any other factor: 41%, against 16% for funding. Visible senior ownership, which costs little to mandate, was cited by more than two and a half times as many practitioners as new money.
The most-cited barrier was a lack of awareness and understanding among staff (63%), ahead of funding (53%) and competing workload pressures (50%). Cultural and societal attitudes ranked lower, at 42%.
Every barrier ranked above cultural attitudes in the dataset is something a transport operator, local authority or government department can address directly, without waiting for wider social change.
“The findings should be seen as a call to action, rather than a sign of failure. There are encouraging examples across the UK of transport authorities and operators embedding women’s safety more systematically into decision-making, supported by strong leadership and organisational commitment. This research shows that where that leadership exists, progress follows. The next step is ensuring that knowledge, guidance and good practice become accessible to practitioners across the whole sector.”
What practitioners say would help
Asked in open text what single change would have the biggest impact, respondents returned consistently to the same themes:
The “last-metre” environment – bus stops, station exits, subways, car parks and the walking and waiting space around interchanges – named repeatedly as the weakest and least consistently designed part of a journey.
Visible staff presence, described as one of the most effective deterrents available, with explicit warnings against further staffing reductions on safety grounds.
Behaviour-change work aimed at perpetrators rather than at women’s own vigilance, raised unprompted and often, including calls for bystander training and public campaigns aimed at men.
Consistent reporting and recording across operators, modes and police forces, cited as a practical precondition for prioritising investment.
Safety as a mandatory design and business-case criterion, comparable to health and safety, rather than a discretionary consideration.
A national or DfT-led framework standardising expectations across modes and local authorities, so that provision does not depend on which operator or area a passenger travels through.
On format, practitioners were clear about what would reach them: online webinars (70%), case studies and best-practice examples (69%) and online toolkits (66%).
What happens next
The Women’s Safety Baseline Survey is Phase 1 of a two-phase research programme delivered in partnership with WSP on behalf of Women in Transport. Phase 1 sets out the evidence base underpinning Women in Transport’s forthcoming White Paper, which will set out practical steps for transport organisations, sector case studies, and recommendations for government and industry.
Phase 2 of the research programme – sector roundtables and focus groups – will follow the White Paper’s publication, adding qualitative depth on lived experience and on groups this survey could not disaggregate, including disabled, LGBT+ and minority-ethnic transport professionals.
Women in Transport thanks Jade Neville (Chair) and Susan Leadbetter (Vice Chair) of its Women’s Safety Working Group, who have given their time as volunteers to drive this programme of work.