Subway Cars for Women Coming Soon to Shenzhen

By Bailey Hu, June 8, 2017

Starting sometime this month, the Shenzhen subway system will try something new: 'female-priority' cars, set aside specifically for women's use.

Primarily, the idea is to lower incidents of sexual harassment, especially during the subway's peak hours. Although the cars will be labeled as 'female-priority,' men will also be allowed to enter if there's space left over.

Rush hour on the Shenzhen Metro

The decision was announced yesterday by a Shenzhen government official. Standing Committee member Liu Qingsheng said that two to three subway lines will be chosen to test drive the 'female-priority' car idea. If the experiment is successful, it may be implemented in more lines in the city.

The idea was first proposed by Su Zhongyang, a provincial official and chairman of a Guangzhou company. A government 'investigative team' looked into both Guangzhou and Shenzhen's subway systems before the decision was made to try it out in Shenzhen.

Female-priority subway cars may be new to the city, but female-only transportation is already established in some countries, such as Japan.

Japan's women-only subway cars

The metro system in Cairo, Egypt, has female-only cars on every line, Mexico City has women-only buses, and in Mumbai and New Delhi, India, taxi companies with woman drivers take only female passengers.

The topic of female-only transport, however, still raises controversy around the world, with some critics calling it ineffective.

[Images via China.eb80.com, Tuchong.com, っ]