BART wants to end sexual harassment of girls and gender-based violence on its transit system and the agency kicked off the second phase of a campaign to do so this week.
This second phase of the Not One More Girl campaign is focused on empowering riders in harassment situations and providing tools to support them when harassment does occur.
BART is changing too to make the system safer for girls and gender-expansive youth as part of the campaign themed Our Story of Courage.
“However you identify, we are here to protect you,” BART’s chief spokesperson Alicia Trost said at a news conference Thursday morning outside of the Downtown Berkeley BART station.
She said this is the most important initiative ever taken by BART.
The second phase of it comes after the COVID-19 pandemic decimated ridership and as BART does everything it can to win riders back.
Trost said, “That starts with safety.”
She said the Not One More Girl campaign is essential to the system’s future because sexual harassment and gender-based violence are keeping youth from riding BART.
Trost spoke with youth in Oakland and at the University of California at Berkeley and was humbled by what she heard, she said.
“Some of them told me, ‘I don’t ride BART. My mom won’t let me,'” Trost added, indicating the problem is becoming generational.
BART made some progress in phase one of the campaign. Nine percent of riders said they experienced sexual harassment last month on BART. That is down from 12 percent when the campaign started.
Girls told BART officials that they don’t feel safe on empty trains. They are fearful when a man sits next to them when there are other open seats.
Girls don’t feel safe waiting on a platform for 30 minutes. They don’t feel safe at the end of platforms, which are dark and sketchy, the girls told BART officials.
So, BART is making some changes starting Sept. 11. BART will run shorter trains especially on nights and weekends. That means the first car where the train operator works will not be at the end of the platform.
BART is also increasing the frequency of trains on nights and weekends, so girls and other youth don’t have to wait so long.
“Active spaces are safe spaces,” Trost said.
BART officials decided against designating cars as women-only, which some transit agencies around the world do. Instead, BART is encouraging girls and youth and anyone who doesn’t feel safe to ride in the first car.
Sexual harassment is prohibited on BART following a change in policy in phase one of the Not One More Girl campaign, which launched in 2021.
As part of the campaign, BART has put up posters telling people about the steps they can take if they are harassed or witness harassment. Sixty posters have been placed on trains and 300 more are in stations in the system.
BART also created business-size cards that a victim or potential victim can give to another person to ask for help. Cards for bystanders are also available to give to victims to let them know someone is there to help.
Who are the creeps bothering women? Maybe BART needs vigilantes. Bart seems to be doing everything except catching and shaming the harassers. Maybe they need women and mens cars like in the middle east.
They will never have a women’s car because they can not define woman!
Times up! If we all ban together, we can stop crime completely. We just need to kneel down and bow our heads together and our mental power goes straight over the entire universe and it will go into the care Bears stomachs and stop anyone from doing anything hateful anywhere
I was on a train a few years ago and the guy next to me was talking about how the women standing up were dressed and I pushed back on his comments and he replied basically “They like the attention, they want you to just walk right up and grab their privates.”
I moved seats.
The most important initiative ever taken by BART. in there minds only. How about a Cop on every train?
Anyone think this will work?
No!
Work for what? What’s the goal?
Carry a 9mm is my suggestion
Hear, hear.
Give me a break. Is this even a thing? So you can’t speak to strangers on a train anymore? Anything to feed a narrative..What’s next there’s racism on BART? What a police state they are trying to solidify. People, don’t use BART because it sucks. Blaming men as always, white man is the devil right..I’m so sick of everyone being a damn victim and these communists using victim hood to divide the people. There’s laws against “harassment”. It has a legal definition. Approaching the opposite sex, showing interest, asking for a date, spitting game, trying to score, does not meet legal standards. Ladies, men are attracted to you, it’s nature. Men, you’re attracted to ladies, it’s nature. These commies are trying to divide us on everything so we’re a completely broken society. Don’t fall for it.
When a man sits next to a woman on BART when there are many empty seats I doubt he is a likely prospect.
If you won’t sit next to a fake woman on an empty train it’s a hate crime.
.
Again it’s asked, what is a woman?
A woman is a man with wo before the man.
Things like this are why Bart costs so much and still sucks. This will never stop unless there is a fundamental change in society. Men should be men and respect women and be man enough to correct actions of ones that don’t. Richardo said above maybe there should be vigilantes on bart, I think we should all be vigilant and support people in need and bart should butt out and spend money on things that will make the trains cleaner and safer for all not simply pander to get a headline.
BART car for women? good question as to who “identifies” as a woman … but also .. isn’t that discrimination by sex? Lawsuit waiting to happen….
Gotta love BARTs thinking. Because woke never fails 🤪
Democrats can no longer define a woman or girl so this is moot…
Until everybody is safe no one will be safe. The government is lacking common sense or they are all crooks themselves.
Both!!!
😄😄😄 so they’re increasing safety by telling women to ride in the first car and take a business card? No thought of increasing security personnel or keeping fare-evading creeps from aimlessly riding the trains all day and night ? Bart is a sad joke.
Gender-Expansive? More cliches, more nonsense.
BART is Crime-Expansive. Perhaps work on THAT problem.
Their answer is to give victims “tools” to thwart crime. More nonsense.
It’s BART’s responsibility to thwart crime.
Being a woman and sexual harassment goes hand in hand. We learn as little girls to deflect and laugh off uncomfortable situations with men. If your pretty it’s constant. Then there is the predator aspect. Which is a real thing. I applaud BART for bringing awareness to an uncomfortable situation. Will it work? No it won’t. If you men would ask the woman in your life how many times a day they have been made uncomfortable by other men, you will be amazed. Most of us don’t even give it a second thought. Because it is what it is. How sad.
I feel for you. 19 people on this forum thought your real life experience was garbage.
What a sad state of affairs.
These 🤡 s on the Bart Board still haven’t figured out how to stop the massive amount of fare evaders.
Those who prefer to weaken the police, allow weak DA’s, and weaken laws to accommodate the depraved, have not one thing to complain about.
How did I take BART for 23 years straight!? And I used to take the last train from the Mission to Concord, solo, after meeting SF friends on Sat nights It seems unfathomable now, but there was safety in numbers then. This campaign sounds useless. They need actual law and order.
So, BARFwill not only allow all other crimes, but will incurage them?
Want to fix the system fast… Nobody get’s near the system without paying a fare. Things will improve fast. Was at Walnut Creek BART a couple weekends ago, 3 BART police kicked 3 different creeps out of the station when they saw them push through the gate without paying. Want to make girls and everyone safer, get the non-fare paying low lifes out of the system.
I had the unique experience of dealing with a Bart station agent last week. I use the word unique since it is so rare to find a person who actually “works” for Bart in a station. Anyway, I occasionally use Bart to go to SF airport. My clipper went haywire last October- and I haven’t needed it for the past 10 months. However, I will need to go to the airport in a few weeks and I have funds on the card. I approached the agent with caution – no suddenly moves, no loud noises – and asked a simple question about resetting my clipper. She made it perfectly clear that she was annoyed as hell that I bothered her while she was busy sitting on her butt doing nothing. She was even more PO’d that I didn’t know all the inside info of resetting a clipper card. True, I don’t know …. and I don’t care. She told me how to reset my card and that was when I made a huge mistake! I repeated it back to her 😱. My obvious stupidity was pointed out by her screaming – I Just Said That!. So the moral of this story is – I can’t imagine anyone who works for Bart helping anyone riding Bart. I guess being advised to sit in front and grab one of their business cards is the best they’re willing to do.
Hey princess, get me another beer!!
I think President Trump really made things better. His hands on approach and know-how put us ahead a couple years. His hard earned knowledge of public transportation and daily life of the middle class made him so relatable.
It is BART’s responsibility to provide safety for it’s passengers. The only way to achieve this is to have police on every line in every station & enforce the laws on the books. Plus they need to patrol the provided parking garages to ensure the safety of people’s cars as well. Pretty simple really just need to kick the useless lifelong grifters off of the board & you should see a turnaround in a short amount of time.
Cop stationed at every station, actually patrolling around. Cop on every train, actually patrolling around. That is the only way they are going to get people back to BART and feeling somewhat safe-not just from harassment from pervs but from robberies, unhinged homeless people, drug users, etc. Posters and press conferences and public outreach will not make a dent. This entire campaign shows you how out of touch BART is with the depth of problem with their image.