Commuting to college

Content Warning: sexual assault, physical assault, and gender-based violence

Commuting regularly hadn’t been a thought that crossed my mind until it was my only option. Ever since my elementary years, school was always a walk away, and for the few times it wasn’t, my parents could afford to spare me a car ride. Now that I’m forced to live an entire city over from Toronto just to have a modest roof over my head, I see that those lifts were luxuries rather than commodities. Furthermore, I somehow have to find my way through a part of Canada that I’ve never been to, on top of having little to no experience of the outside world (I don’t go out much… courtesy of my strict parents). Any time I show my face beyond the walls of my bedroom, I’m plagued with fear over the thought of an hour-long train ride with strangers. 

I’ve seen the news. I’ve heard it from my parents. I’ve missed out on life’s pleasures, such as sleepovers and parties between friends. After being taught about the horrors of this world, how am I supposed to adapt to this ‘180’ way of living? I have classes that will start as early as 9 am and end as late as 8 pm this year; how many predators will be lurking, waiting for their next victim at those times? It’s important to address these fears and instill an awareness of safety amongst new students, and I will be doing so to the best of my ability.

These are the worst-case scenarios that no one thinks will happen to them until they do. Statistics Canada’s Martha Burczycka lists numerical representations of college students’ experiences with sexual assault in 2019, reporting that 71 percent of Canadian pupils witness or experience “unwanted sexualized behavior” involving fellow students or school staff on and off campus. Additionally, 77 percent of women and 70 percent of men who have been victims of sexual assault report that at least one incident occurred off campus. These findings are even more troubling when paired with the fact that off-campus locations, such as Canadian transit hubs, don’t track sexual assault incidents that occur at their bus stops or train stations. In 2019, The Globe and Mail published an article about transit passengers who were victims of sexual violence from 2013 to 2017. In the article, Annie Burns-Pieper opens with three cases where young women and one minor were either groped, physically assaulted, stalked, or had their undergarments photographed without their consent. Although the police were notified, “the transit systems did not record any of these incidents in their statistics on sexual assault and unwanted sexual acts on transit.” 

The Globe and Mail highlights that this  lack of information is political in nature; when these crimes are reported, victims are told that the transit’s agency isn’t responsible, that the crime wasn’t sexual or regarded as criminal behavior, or that transit employees weren’t trained to inform women how to report misogynistic behavior. Not only does this perpetuate rape culture, but it also undermines how dangerous commuting can be.  

Furthermore, CTV News reported that Statistics Canada found that “more than six in 10 Indigenous women” have been physically or sexually assaulted at least once in their life compared to “more than four in 10 in non-Indigenous women.”

The world can truly be a dark place, and because there’s very little light at the end of the tunnel—i.e., support and justice for victims—the issue can seem impenetrable. But the best thing a likely target can do is prepare themselves. When making your commute, travel with a friend or two in order to be able to protect each other; a single assaulter is less likely to attack a group. If you’re a loner like me, try acting like you’re with someone. If you witness an assault, start recording and being loud to attract attention. Because of Canada’s stringent laws regarding self-defense, the best “weapon” a potential victim can use is an airhorn, and even so, warns The Coast, “burst your assailant’s eardrums and you still might face charges.” 

Lack of safety isn’t the only issue faced by public transportation; there is also the issue of accessibility. Public transit has historically  been an accessible means of travel for people in need of transportation. Given the vast number of jobs that COVID-19 took from the working class, the TTC should be available to all, right? Yet,  n 2019, Narcity Toronto’s Allysha Howse declared that Toronto has “The Worst Commute In All Of North America,” with Expert Market naming it the sixth worst transit system in the world. Howse argues that Toronto transit often has delays and route closures, has the highest average commute times in the world, and is costly (two-thirds of unemployed people have low access to transit).

The idea of commuting in the fall is already dreadful, but what really matters is getting to and from school safely and without incident.