Priority carriages show ‘no obvious effect’地铁女士优先车厢，女士优先了吗？

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IT has been two years since Shenzhen Metro Group launched priority carriages for women. However, the effect of setting up such carriages has been far from satisfactory, according to a report on Shenzhen TV.

During a field visit to a train bound for Qinghu on Metro Line 4 at midday Monday, the reporter from SZTV found that a woman holding a child came to a priority carriage for women looking for a seat, but there were no seats available. The carriage was crowded with passengers, and more of them were men than women.

On a train running in the opposite direction, it was also found that the designated carriage for women was crowded, and the seats were also mostly occupied by men.

Shenzhen started to pilot priority carriages for women on Metro lines 1, 3, 4 and 5 on June 26, 2017, in a move to improve the commuting experience and safety of female passengers. On March 8, 2018, the program was expanded to all Metro lines in the city.

According to a staffer with Shenzhen Metro Group, the original intention of setting up priority carriages for women was to cultivate a social atmosphere that respects women, advocate caring for women and improve the level of social civilization.

Although the carriages give priority to female passengers, they are not meant to be women-only carriages, and are not compulsory at the legal level. Many male passengers don’t care much as long as they can get on the train during rush hours, the staffer said.

To this, experts suggest that the allocation of the carriage space could also maintain a balance if passengers were guided to line up for trains during rush hours and there were more publicity on the train’s televisions and radio.

WeChat Editors/Holly, Jane