Women are being left out in the cold by transport policies — literally.

As someone born and bred in Islington, I have always been fairly relaxed about walking home late at night. Maybe too relaxed — I rarely get taxis, even in the early hours of the morning, and I have a tendency to behave a bit like Scrappy Doo in potentially troublesome situations, being much too bold for my size (5’2).

I didn’t want to be waiting 20 minutes for a bus, with a random man

In recent times, I have rather lost my “Scrappy factor” along with the sense that it is safe to go about in the late hours.

Chief to this was an experience in January. I had enjoyed a boozy supper in West London and was returning to Highbury (hardly Frodo’s trip to Mordor). I got to Paddington station at around 00:40, where I hoped to hop onto the Victoria line, only to find the station mostly empty. Two TfL staff told me that the night tube wasn’t working — even though it was a Friday evening (aka one of the main times when you most want to use the night tube).

So I went to catch the bus. Citymapper said one would come at 12:55. It never showed. I waited on the street corner, which was empty. A man eventually turned up, and we stood there for 20 minutes before the bus came.

I’m not saying there was anything wrong with this man. Maybe I was standing next to the nicest person in the whole world that evening. The point is, I didn’t want to be standing on a street corner after midnight, waiting 20 minutes for a bus, with a random man.

This week I had a similar experience. My friend had an art show in London. After a wonderful night out together, we left Soho at around midnight. She ordered an Uber and we waited for it. It took at least 20 minutes to arrive.

Although my friend had insisted I leave, I had confidence knowing that I could speedily get home on the Victoria line. I headed off down Dean Street. Here I was approached by a man from a group (I do not mean this callously) that appeared to be homeless. He commented on my looks.

At the end of Dean Street, I spotted that the Elizabeth Line at Tottenham Court Road (one option to get home) was closed (at 00:50). Soon after I found Oxford Street closed. A transport worker there told me the night tube only works over the weekend (although apparently not on Fridays from Paddington … ).

The cabbie said he regularly now sees women stranded around London

Afterwards I found a bus that took me close enough to home, and then I waited for another bus. With no sign of one coming any time soon, I hailed a cab with its lights on. It drove past. Luckily, the next cab picked me up.

The cab driver was a very nice man. During the journey home, because of my interest in car issues, I asked him his thoughts on Sadiq Khan. “Arsehole!” he replied, adding that “he hates us” and emphasising “you know, most of us cabbies are working class”. The cabbie told me that because of Khan’s policies, taxi numbers have gone down from 25,000 to 14,000. He also said that he regularly now sees women stranded around London.

The conversation furthered my conviction that transport should be better considered as a feminist issue. I do not think it is a coincidence that Will Norman, London’s Walking & Cycling Commissioner, is male. Nor is it by chance that many who, like him, advocate more cycle lanes (aka fewer cars on the road) are also male. They lack empathy in a number of ways, but particularly when it comes to thinking about how women get about areas (including mums transporting small children).

Standing at the bus stop last night, waiting and waiting, I simply thought: do some of these men think I should have cycled three miles from Soho — or that it should even be walked? I suspect they’d say that they actually just want better public transport. With on and off strikes, a huge hole in the nation’s finances and sluggish productivity in the UK, this utopia is a long way away. In the meantime, women — as well as other groups — are paying the price of male urbanist dreams.

Although I have used my own experiences to illustrate the challenges of transport policy, the biggest victims in this will be women in precarious industries and on low wages. Take hospitality staff, working late on weekdays in Soho. If they cannot access the night tube and have to wait long periods for buses, they are not safe. Many won’t be able to afford taxis (if Ubers don’t cancel on them, and there’s enough supply of other cabs). It’s unsustainable as an option.

As with most things that don’t function in London, it is difficult not to lay the blame on Khan, despite his purported interest in women’s safety. Last year he launched a campaign to tackle male violence, that tells men “Have A Word With Yourself, Then With Your Mates”. There’s no point in telling men to “have a word” when the Mayor’s transport policies leave women stranded in the cold on empty streets.

Another official who supposedly cares about women’s safety is Amy Lamé, the £116,000-per-year Night Czar, who held a “Women’s Night Safety Summit” in 2017. “London’s first” such event had the goal of “Ensuring women in the capital are safe at night”. Yet she has done nothing obvious to engender this change. 

As an example of her general incompetence, let me return to the events of last night. I was running late to my friend’s show which began at 6pm, and she let me know that the studio would close promptly at 8pm — because of “annoying neighbours”. She was referring to the London phenomenon of noise-sensitive residents, with whom councils side when deciding venues’ closing hours.

Not only transport policies reduce getting-home options for women, but opening times do, too. Cabbies are learning there’s no point in coming out late — as the city is dead. This is whilst the Night Czar has been in a well-paid post since 2016, with her brief of “ensuring London thrives as a 24-hour city”. 

I cannot see the situation getting better — given that the Mayor and his team are intent on turning the capital into 28 Days Later. London is burning, and no one’s fetching the engine. Perhaps some advice to Khan might be “Have A Word With Yourself, Then With Your Czars”.