Mexico City Transit Goes Grope-Free

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  01.24.08 | 11:41 AM ET

imageI feel for the women of Mexico City. Like their long-suffering sisters in Tokyo, they daily run a gauntlet of gropes and grabs while commuting on jam-packed buses and subway cars. Now the city has given them some breathing room, at least. According to Reuters, a new women-only bus service got under way this week, turning men away at the door. The city plans to expand the service to 15 routes by April.

I can’t imagine having to fend off gropers in Washington D.C.‘s Metro system—commuters here are pretty staid—but I did take advantage of the women-only subway cars in Tokyo last spring, and felt, for a few minutes, at least, part of a global sisterhood. I’ve been lucky in my travels; I’ve never had to fight off a groper in a foreign country. But I’d be curious to know which cities—aside from the usual suspects—are known for this kind of thing. Any anecdotes to share, ladies?

Photo by 416style via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Related on World Hum:
* Women’s Travel E-Mail Roundtable, Part One: ‘He My HUSBAND!’
* Chilangos on Ice in Mexico City

Tags: North America, Mexico

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


2 Comments for Mexico City Transit Goes Grope-Free

Julia Rosien 01.24.08 | 1:07 PM ET

A friend of mine traveled to a city where this was commonplace in her early 20s. She, logically, was offended and spent much of her public time with arms crossed, protecting herself from walk-by-gropings.

But when she returned more than 2 decades later, she wasn’t groped at all. Not that she wanted to groped, but I can totally understand her sadness at being dismissed and excluded from a “club” where she was once admired and adored…

Julia Rosien
Editor, http://gogirlfriend.com

Carpetblogger 01.24.08 | 2:22 PM ET

Cairo has all-woman subways cars and they are like traveling in a peaceful, happy cocoon world of all women. Same in the all-women sections of Lahore buses.

It’s getting so bad on Istiklal Caddesi that women’s groups in Istanbul are passing out hat pins to women on weekend nights. They are a very effective countermeasure.

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