Why is it difficult for subway "women's priority carriages" to "give priority"?

Let the female carriages really play their due role and test the wisdom of subway managers.

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Special Commentator/Xia Yan (Media Person) Editor Xu Qiuying Proofreading Chen Diyan

▲Shenzhen Metro's "Ladies Priority Car". Screenshots/videos

On January 2, a video of a woman mocking male passengers one by one in the Shenzhen Metro's "Ladies Priority Car" sparked heated discussion.

In the video, the woman is emotional, accusing the male passengers of "2022, and the men are kind enough to sit in the seats of the women's priority car", and the next accusing other female passengers of "choosing to ignore". After the dispute, shenzhen metro said that the carriage was not prohibited for men to use, and that the concession of the seat followed the principle of voluntariness.

The woman's emotions were very agitated, and some of the prefaces in her words did not match the afterwords, and this extreme expression should be accidental. But it also raises a question: where is the priority of the so-called "ladies priority carriage"?

The subway has long been controversial about the placement of female priority cars. At present, more than 200 cities with subways, most of them do not have this special design, Beijing, Chongqing and other places have publicly stated that there are no female priority cars; but some cities have special subways, in addition to the domestic Shenzhen, Japan Tokyo, The United Arab Emirates Dubai and other places have female priority or special carriages.

Whether it is for or without support, it is not difficult to find a bunch of reasons to argue. Proponents can say that this curbs harassment against women, while non-supporters can say it could lead to a waste of public resources and potentially differentiate the treatment of women. In this matter, perhaps only "relatively correct" - that is, comprehensive urban characteristics, social culture, subway operation conditions, etc., to choose a feasible and consensus plan, then it is appropriate.

In general, there should be clear rules for women's priority carriages. For example, Tokyo has made it clear that this is "for women" during peak hours, but there is no clear penalty, mainly relying on self-awareness; and Dubai has made it clear that entering the female carriage will be fined, so the female carriage of the Dubai Metro is a "minefield" for male passengers, and men are far away.

The controversy in the Shenzhen metro is mainly due to the lack of clarity of the rules, which leads to a deviation in understanding, with female passengers believing that women are "taken for granted" and male passengers believing that they are "all voluntary", which gives rise to contradictions.

In fact, from the practice of Shenzhen, women's priority carriages are increasingly tending to be a moral advocacy rather than a rule compulsion. For example, the Regulations on the Promotion of Civilized Behavior in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, which came into effect on March 1, 2020, have special content related to priority carriages.

In the draft for comments, it has been "stipulated that the priority carriages set up by the subway can only be used by the disabled, minors, women and other people in need during peak hours, and the subway staff should advise other passengers who take the priority cars to leave".

However, in the official draft, this article was deleted, and the relevant units also explained the reasons: the priority car is "difficult to operate in practice", and "we have made provisions for the establishment of priority seats, which can be used by people in need, and the necessity of setting up priority carriages on this basis needs to be further demonstrated."

This is obviously consistent with the Shenzhen Metro's reply after the controversy: women's priority cars are not "men's bans", and whether to give up seats is mainly voluntary. This should be the current standard definition of female priority carriages.

Since Shenzhen has set up women's priority carriages, it is even more necessary to publicize the rules of carriages, otherwise this design will be useless and cannot play its due role.

No matter what kind of attitude people have towards women's priority carriages, from the perspective of the subway management department, the formulation of public order rules in the subway will undoubtedly encounter various problems, of which making the rules operable is the top priority.

Considering that Shenzhen is a city with a huge population and dense personnel exchanges, this rule informs that it should maintain a high frequency state. For example, through subway broadcasts or advertisements in prominent positions, passengers are informed of the basic rules of female priority carriages, so as to avoid contradictions caused by understanding deviations.

In addition, people who are new to Shenzhen may have no concept of women's priority cars at all. How to pass out the rules clearly and concisely in a short period of time and achieve social consensus is also a test of management wisdom.

Therefore, the disturbance around the women's priority carriage is nothing less than a reminder: regulations are only the first step, and follow-up management should be persistent.

Duty Editor Gu li Kang Xi Xi