Y4 S2 Design, History & Theory Dissertation (40cr)
2024-25
Word Count: 10,944
Tutors: Mitchel Miller
The Glasgow School of Art
Student ID: 21035059
Contents
Acknowledgements: 3
*
Synopsis: 4-5
* Introduction: 9-11 *
Bus Stop Location: 10-19
The commute to the bus stops e.g. through safe areas, wide paths, etc : 10-13
What area are they situated near e.g. industrial estates or parks : 14-16
What type of location e.g. next to a shop, on an empty road, etc : 17-19 *
Aesthetics Over Function: 20-27
How Practicality is ignored e.g. accessibility and size, bike lock ups, wheelchair access, etc : 21-23
How Practicality is ignored in bus stop seating specifically : 24
How well kept they are e.g. graffiti, broken parts, litter, etc : 25-27
*
Updated Technology and the Effects on Safety: 28-33
Live Digital bus times at the stops and trackers on phones : 28-29
Lighting the actual shelter and the areas around it : 30-32
CCTV and just any kind of security system : 32-33
* Conclusion: 34-35
*
Bibliographpy: 36
List of Illustrations
Fig.A: Authors photo of ‘New Street’ Bus Stop in Paisley, May 2024.
Fig.B: Authors photo of ‘Baberton Mains Dell’ to Edinburgh Bus Stop in Edinburgh, December 2024.
Fig.C: Authors photo of Stance 44 at ‘Buchanan Bus Station’ in Glasgow, September 2024.
Fig.1: Authors photo of Platform13 & 14 at ‘Glasgow Central Station’, October 2024.
Fig.2: Authors photo of ‘Hilhead - Outer’ Subway Station in Glasgow, January 2025.
Fig.3: Authors photo of ‘Gryfebank Avenue’ -to Glasgow Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, March 2024.
Fig.4: Authors photo of ‘Gryfebank Avenue’ -to Greenock Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, March 2024.
Fig.5: Authors photo of my commute to & from ‘Gryfebank Avenue’ Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, January 2025.
Fig.6: Authors photo of “Abandoned Bus Stop” in Renfrewshire, January 2025.
Fig.7: Authors photo of my commute to & from Bus Stop in Glasgow, October 2024.
Fig.8: Authors photo of my commute to & from Bus Station in Glasgow, October 2024.
Fig.9: Authors photo of ‘Lee Burn Avenue’ (COOP) Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, November 2024.
Fig.10: Authors photo of distance from stairs ‘Lee Burn Avenue’ (COOP) Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, November 2024.
Fig.11: Authors photo of distance from COOP ‘Lee Burn Avenue’ (COOP) Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, November 2024.
Fig.12: Google Maps photo of ‘Dull End Road’ (my coworkers) to Aberfeldy Bus Stop in Aberfeldy, June 2023. URL- https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dull+Road+End/@56.6163515,3.9368605,3a,75y,359.45h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sr9Ca5FE1iFA1HvlKyDxw-Q!2e0!5s20230601T000 000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv .tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D0%26panoid%3Dr9Ca5FE1iFA1HvlKyDxw-Q%26yaw %3D359.453!7i16384!8i8192!4m16!1m8!3m7!1s0x4888a4e905d5a0bf:0xa0c681c77dfb640!2sDull,+Abe rfeldy+PH15+2JQ!3b1!8m2!3d56.620816!4d-3.943927!16s%2Fm%2F0260zpm!3m6!1s0x4888a4edc262 3597:0x6eef157bc395a63a!8m2!3d56.616402!4d-3.9368569!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F1tfxxm31?entry=ttu&g_ ep=EgoyMDI1MDMxOS4yIKXMDSoJLDEwMjExNDU1SAFQAw%3D%3D
Fig.13: Google Maps photo of ‘Dull End Road’ (my coworkers) to Fearnan Bus Stop in Aberfeldy, June 2023. URL-https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dull+Road+End/@56.6163313,-3.9370264,3a,75y,164.99h,64.27t/ data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sYstzF6CevOKsmVT9ybFYOQ!2e0!5s20230601T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixelspa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_
Fig.D: Google Maps photo of ‘Dull End Road’ (my coworkers) to Aberfeldy Bus Stop in Aberfeldy, July 2009. URL- https://www.google.com/maps/@56.6163267,-3.9369106,3a,75y,358.89h,63.86t/data=!3m 8!1e1!3m6!1sLdEKxNcoXI7gAtI_0EWTLw!2e0!5s20090601T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa. googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_
Fig.E: Google Maps photo of ‘Dull End Road’ (my coworkers) to Fearnan Bus Stop in Aberfeldy, July 2009. URL- https://www.google.com/maps/@56.6163208,-3.9370875,3a,75y,150.18h,67.61t/ data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sN_jYTCY6UZJG6gxHSmweBA!2e0!5s20090601T000000!6shttps: %2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_ sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D22.39319647395301%26panoid%3DN_ jYTCY6UZJG6gxHSmweBA%26yaw%3D150.18169475948235!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu&g_ ep=EgoyMDI1MDMxOS4yIKXMDSoJLDEwMjExNDU1SAFQAw%3D%3D
Fig.14: Ian Nairn, ‘Casebook’, Architectural Review, 120.Counter-Attack (1956), p. 373.
Fig.15: Google Maps photo of ‘Perth Road’ Bus Stop in Crieff, April 2023. URL- Perth Rd - Google Maps
Fig.16: Authors photo of ‘Gilmor Street’ Bus Stop in Paisley, May 2024.
Fig.17: Authors photo of ‘Leman Drive’ to Glasgow Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, January 2025.
Fig.18: Authors photo of ‘Leman Drive’ to Greenock Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, January 2025.
Fig.19: Authors photo of person using seating at ‘Gryfebank Avenue’ Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, February 2025.
Fig.19.5: Authors photo of person using seating at ‘Drury Street’ Bus Stop in Glasgow, February 2025.
Fig.20: Authors photo of people using seating at ‘Springburn Road’ Bus Stop in Glasgow, February 2025.
Fig.21: Authors photo of ‘St Fillians’ Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, February 2025.
Fig.22: Authors photo of “teens loitering” at ‘Baberton Mains Dell’ to Edinburgh Bus Stop in Edinburgh, December 2024.
Fig.23: Authors photo of smashed Perspex at ‘Gryfebank Avenue’ Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, January 2025.
Fig.24: Authors photo of melted Perspex at ‘Lee Burn Avenue’ (COOP) Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, November 2024.
Fig.25: Lorraine Tinney, ‘New Bus Stop That Will Provide “Live Travel” Information Are Welcomed’, Greenock Telegraph, 23 December 2020. URL- https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/18959040.new-busstops-will-provide-live-travel-information-welcomed/
Fig.26: Authors photo of poor lighting at ‘Leman Drive’ to Glasgow Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, January 2025.
Fig.27: Authors photo of LED lighting at ‘Drury Street’ Bus Stop in Glasgow, February 2025.
Fig.28: Authors photo of solar panels at ‘Highburgh Road’ Bus Stop in Glasgow, February 2025.
Fig.29: Google Maps photo of ‘Leman Drive’ to Greenock Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, June 2019. URLhttps://www.google.com/maps/@55.8601225,-4.5306004,3a,75y,116.16h,72.17t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sy9Tbka 4DBoImhIGALcFAmQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_ client%3Dmaps_
Fig.30: Google Maps photo of ‘Leman Drive’ to Greenock Bus Stop in Renfrewshire, April 2024. URL- https://www.google.com/maps/@55.8600901,-4.5306265,3a,90y,95.48h,69.66t/ data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s5L4DE3VQFR8-41AK-gv0Hg!2e0!5s20190601T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixelspa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3 D20.336620466746353%26panoid%3D5L4DE3VQFR8-41AK-gv0Hg%26yaw%3D95.48293193072723!7i13312!8i6 656?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMxOS4yIKXMDSoJLDEwMjExNDU1SAFQAw%3D%3D
Acknowledgement
This essay would never have come about if it wasn’t for Eleanor Herring, my 3rd year Design History and Theory lecturer, and her intense interest and expertise on the politics of space. As well as her incredibly interesting book; ‘Street Furniture Design: Contesting Modernism in Post-War Britain’. Her passion for dissecting public design and seeing who is affected by it made me realise my very niche and specific interest in bus stop design.
I also have to thank my tutor for this year, Mitch Miller who has dealt with hearing me rant about the endlessly entertaining topic of bus stops and also dealt with my intense last minuteness all year. Thank you for keeping me positive and actually seeming interested in my topic :)
Fig.A: Bus Shelter - New Street: Paisley
Fig.C: Bus Post - Baberton Mains Dell: Edinburgh
Fig.B: Bus Station - Buchanan Bus Station
Synopsis
“In 2019-20, 502 million public transport journeys were made by bus, rail, air and ferry… 73% were by bus”
-Travel Scotland 20211
When it comes to the design of bus stops*1, and all street furniture for that matter, I am aware that they were never designed to be biased. However, they have flaws in their design that disproportionately affect nonmen*2 in their daily life, as they are simply not taking into account the real-life experiences of non-men, that tend to be very different compared to a man’s. The reason why the gender biased design of bus stops is so important is because majority of bus users aren’t men2, in fact non-men contribute up to 1/3 more bus journeys per year than men3 and the design of these stops are actively working against them despite bus travel being the most feminized form of transport4. It is to the point that non-men are spending more money, turning down jobs and actively putting themselves in unsafe environments due to bus stop design5. Some of these issues seem far-fetched and almost dramatic right now, but my aim is to show you how little things like this can, and do, really change people’s lives.
*1 When I say stops, I am referring to any designated space for waiting for buses e.g. shelters (Fig A), stations (Fig B), posts (Fig C), etc.
*2 I use the term ‘non-men’ instead of ‘women’ as I feel sexism pertains to anyone who isn’t the traditional idea of a ‘man’, this includes nonbinary, genderfluid and intersex people, not just women.
1 ‘Scottish Transport Statistics NO. 39 2020 Edition ~ Summary Transport Statistics’, Transport Scotland, 24 February 2021 <https:// www.transport.gov.scot/publication/scottish-transport-statistics-no-39-2020-edition/summary-transport-statistics/>.
2 Caroline Criado-Perez, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (Vintage, 2020).
3 Rebecca Gill, ‘Public Transport and Gender: Briefing from the UK Women’s Budget Group on Public Transport and Gender’ (Womens Budget Group, October 2019) <https://wbg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/TRANSPORT-2019-1.pdf>.
4 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
5 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
Introduction
In this essay my goal is to make you think differently about how everything is designed and who it prioritises. It is not to present information to the government to make them change their public designs, because they already have this information, I reference them in this essay, it’s to make the average person aware of the information. It’s to make you think about whether your lifestyle and habits were thought about in the design process of public architecture, e.g. if the door is wide enough for a wheelchair, if the seat is big enough for your bag as well, if the street is bright enough at night, etc. The goal is to translate the jargon and politics of design and make the faults and issues understandable for the average reader. So, they can become more conscious of how their life is affected by things they can’t control and possibly become more vocal about it to the governing bodies in their area. I also don’t want you to think this is just limited to bus stops, the topic of gender biased design is just too big to fully represent in 10,000 words so I’m channeling the principal ideas and their effects through bus stop design. I will be exploring the impact by focusing on a few key sections of my argument:
Bus Stop Locations
The commute to the bus stops e.g. through safe areas, wide paths, etc.
What area are they situated near e.g. industrial estates or parks
What type of location e.g. next to a shop, on an empty road, etc.
Aesthetics Over Function
How well kept they are e.g. graffiti, broken parts, litter, etc.
How Practicality is ignored e.g. accessibility and size, bike lock ups, wheelchair access, etc.
How Practicality is ignored in bus stop seating specifically Updated Technology and the Effects on Safety
Live Digital bus times at the stops and trackers on phones
Lighting the actual shelter and the areas around it
CCTV and just any kind of security system
Method
Initially I thought I should choose the method of ‘Visual Essay’ as all my images I took felt extremely relevant to the points I wanted to put across. Furthermore, whilst I was reading ‘Invisible Women’ and Criado Perez was explaining the flaws of certain designs I found myself looking up pictures or pausing to try and visualize the issues. It really took me out of reading and made the whole process more inconvenient and mildly annoying. There was a somewhat similar experience with ‘Street Furniture Design’ but most of the time there was either the exact image Herring was talking about or something so similar that it wasn’t that difficult to grasp most of her points. However, in a visual essay the words support the images and now I have written this dissertation I feel it is now the other way around more often than not. So, I now feel a ‘Dissertation’ with images suits my topic more, as the images support the text. The images will still be my own to make referencing easier, but they won’t be as heavily relied upon to conduct the ‘story’ of the essay.
I think this method of a longer essay supports my topic more as I feel it is a topic that needs to be talked about in great depth or it will end up feeling very shallow and superficial, the larger word count means I am able to do this.
Sources
The main sources I will use to support my points will be a variety of government statistics and reports on public transport form the UK and (where I can) Scottish governments, Caroline Criado Perez’s ‘Invisible Woman: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men’6 and the experiences of bus users that I will obtain through ethnographic-style field research. Using governmental and council statistics is a useful and interesting way to look at who these designs are affecting and why, it gives you the intended facts but you can also draw different ones from it, e.g. the success of the ‘under 22’s go free’ bus pass most likely means that bus use will stay up in young people even when they age out of this scheme as they will be more familiar to the public transport system than previous years. The book ‘Invisible Women’ has become a book I recommend to everyone as the information she draws from the statistics and facts is incredibly thought through an a completely new take I had not really thought about before. It centers the fact that non-men are just not thought about when standardised designs go out, from pianos to transport routes she explains this fact in such an effective way that it has influenced how I see the world and helped inspire me to choose this topic.
And finally, I will be recording some of the experiences of peers and strangers alike on how bus stops affect them in my ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV – 2025 JAN’7. This method was initially going to be a survey that I would simply extract the statistics from, but I felt that my sources were already pretty statistic heavy and wanted to balance it out with some anecdotes. The reason for this is because when I was talking to people about my dissertation, I started by (what seemed to me to be) the most logical way to get my point across, which was regurgitating statistics and reports. But I soon found people didn’t get the depth of my point and research until I related it to personal examples and often common lived experiences, that was where they showed interest and even offered up their own anecdotes to use. I feel this method of offering up statistics and topics to guide the conversation and then presenting other people’s examples, will add experience to my research and help get my point across in an essay format just as well as in a conversation. This style of research I can only describe (to anthropologist like Tim Ingold’s despair) as ‘accidental ethnography’8, as I am myself an extremely avid bus user and because it is such a constant in my life, I just so happen to talk about it a bit more than the average person, accidentally giving myself an uncommonly in-depth knowledge of the bus users experience, well before I even picked this essay subject. So, I am not really immersing myself in a different and new life experience for the purpose of research via participant observation (a general summary of ethnography)9, it actually is my life experience as a bus user who just happens to interact with other bus users and is interested in our shared or different experiences.
When collecting this information, I don’t find it necessary to use any more than verbal consent as I am not revealing any personal information that would lead people they know to be able to identify them and I also have asked for their permission to use their anecdotes in my work.
6 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
7 Mhairi Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’, 3 November 2023.
8 Tim Ingold, ‘That’s Enough About Ethnography!’, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Volume 4.Number 1 (2014).
I have set some limitations to my research to try and maintain focus on a subject. For example, I kept my research on bus stops and not all public transport stops because there is a huge range of needs between all public transport. From the claustrophobic subway stops (Fig.1), to the openness of train stations (Fig.2) and the sometimes remoteness of bus stops (Fig.3). Another reason for sticking to bus stops is the new uptick in bus users since the ‘Free Bus Travel for Under 22’s in Scotland’ that started at the end of January 202210, it has encouraged me and many other young people to start using buses and therefore the design of bus stops is much more relevant in my and my peer’s lives.
Another limitation I set was to keep the location to the UK as different climates throughout the world require different standards for their street furniture e.g. the North of Scotland has much more of a need for a bus shelter with walls to keep out the wind and rain than the South of Spain does. However, as I am drawing from my own and my peers experiences, it will be more Scotland specific as that is my experience. The final main limitation was to set my research in the past 100 years, so after WWII. This is because there is little to no research on the design of street furniture anyway, but there was an increase in documentation after bombings like ‘The Blitz’ tore down the major UK cities and we had a sudden need to rebuild our public areas and quickly11
With all this information in mind, I feel my research question of; “To What Extent is the Design of bus stops Gender Biased?” will help to keep focus on my points and guide my research in a meaningful way.
10 Transport Scotland, ‘Over 150 Million Journeys Made by Young People Using Free Bus Pass’, Transport Scotland, 29 August 2024 <https://www.transport.gov.scot/news/over-150-million-journeys-made-by-young-people-using-free-bus-pass/>.
11 Eleanor Herring, Street Furniture Design: Contesting Modernism in Post-War Britain (Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2016).
Fig.4: Gryfebank Avenue Bus Stop - to Glasgow
Fig.5: Commute to Gryfebank Avenue bus stop
Bus Stop Locations
The location of bus stops doesn’t seem to be relevant when it comes to the impact of their design on nonmen, but it plays a big roll. A UK study shows that 49% of women are scared waiting at bus stops and 59% are scared walking home from one (that’s 29% & 34% higher than men, respectively)12. It is also proven that a person is 3 times more likely to be a victim of a violent crime near a transport stop than on the actual public transport vehicle itself13. Making the everyday experience of the bus journey even more terrifying for non-men, as often fear is not taken into account when planning out bus routes, stops, and peoples access to them.
The commute to the Bus Stops e.g. through safe areas, wide paths, etc.
“Crime surveys and empirical studies from different parts of the world show that a majority of women are fearful of potential violence against them when in public spaces”
-Urban Planning Professor, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris14
Something that is rarely considered in the location of bus stops is how people will actually get there. The commute, I feel, is integral when promoting a sense of safety and getting people to use the bus. In my own experience of living at my family home in a semi-rural village, for my first year of university, my twice daily walk to the closest bus stop (Fig.4) was 10-15 -minutes and the majority of it was through unlit woods on a completely overgrown path (Fig.5). This wasn’t too bad in the nicer, brighter months of the year but even though I was only a 24-minute drive away from university, it was an hour on the bus without traffic. So, if I had a class at 10am in any of the colder months (and in Scotland that’s most) I would have walked in the dark and often bad weather, through a muddy forest with my phone’s torch as my light source to get the bus that leaves at 8:30am. Or if I needed to stay later to get more work done and was in studio past 5pm, I wasn’t even getting off the bus till earliest 6:30pm and by then it’s the same dark, muddy, walk home.
I have talked to multiple friends and neighbors who use the same bus stop, and they will often walk further to different bus stops or only use that route if accompanied when it is dark15. Some would only use it as a last resort if they were unable to use a car (e.g. drive, be driven, use a taxi). I did have a few people say they didn’t have any thoughts on the route, or didn’t seem to have a problem with it, but as you can imagine, they were men16
Fig.6: Abandoned bus stop near my house
Fig.7: Alley commute to east-end friend
I know there are more rural areas, even in my village, where some people are walking much longer through possibly worse conditions to their closest bus stop17, but things only have and will keep getting worse as councils continue to cut funding for buses as the economy drops18. My Mum grew up in the village over from me and talks about all the buses she would take to visit her friends that used to go by the now abandoned bus stop (Fig.6) near my house19. The bus stop is a 5-minute walk through well paved and lit residential streets that I used to pass by every day for 6-years on my 25-minute walk to High School. Thinking how sore my back wouldn’t be from carrying all my new subject folders, and how much warmer and quicker it would have been to have a bus take me to the bus stop directly outside my School’s front entrance.
Not to mention the completely different struggle of walking to bus stops in cities, which I have been experiencing a lot more since I moved out. When I was visiting a friend who lived in the East end of Glasgow, part of the quickest suggested route to my bus stop was through a very long-fenced off alley way which at some points is barely wide enough for 2 people to cross paths (Fig.7). I don’t need to be the one to tell you that this is not a very safe route, but I have checked, and it is the quickest way for everyone in my area to get there20. When I want to visit home, I walk through a large grassy area with a wide path through the middle and a decent park that serves as a green space for the flats around me (Fig. 8). It is well lit, very open and feels safe, but on the 29th of October 2024 in broad daylight, a woman was assaulted by a man with a knife and died21. This is an area where I (and many others) had previously felt comfortable walking though, I even enjoyed the walk through this rare city center green space, but experiences like these are scaring people away from using buses and actively isolating them, unless they have the money to drive/be driven everywhere.
Where a bus stop is placed feels almost completely based on how easy the bus can get to it, and how safely people are able to use it seems completely forgotten along the way. In the process of placing these bus stops we need to think about safe routes to access them and if there aren’t any, then creating some.
17 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
18 Joel Reland, ‘Public Spending on Buses Not Down by Half in a Decade’, Full Fact, 20 October 2019 <https://fullfact.org/ election-2019/public-spending-buses-not-down-half-decade/>.
19 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
20 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
21 BBC, ‘Second Man Charged over Sandie Butler Death’, BBC News UK: Glasgow and West, 8 October 2024 <https://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/articles/cj0jy3py242o>.
Fig.8: Green space commute to bus station
What type of location e.g. next to a shop, on an empty road, etc.
Something else that is not thought about is what stops are placed near in a more physical sense, e.g. in front of a busy shop, on an open empty road, by the entrance of an alleyway, etc. This drastically changes the likelihood of violent crime or the justified fear of it22. And not just about safety either it makes the stops extremely useful or inconvenient depending on what you are using the bus for.
An example emphasising the ‘scare-factor’ of what a bus stop is placed near would be the other bus stop I could use while living at home. It’s near our local ‘CO-OP’ (Fig. 9), is a 15–20-minute walk that is well lit, well paved and goes through mostly residential areas. But the bus stop itself is up some steps, next to a main road, surrounded by trees, not very well lit and usually covered in graffiti. It’s about 100 meters (Fig. 10) from the actual shop and I often find it is much scarier at this stop than the walk through the woods to my usual one. Because the walk to my other bus stop is over in 10 minutes, but you never know if the bus will be late so don’t know how long you could be waiting at the unnerving ‘CO-OP’ bus stop for. I’ve never understood why they don’t move the bus stop to the top of the stairs, there’s lamp posts near, there’s a good view from the shop and it’s still very easy for the bus to access on the main road. I know myself and a lot of other people would use that stop a lot more if it was moved about 20 meters over 23(Fig. 11).
Bus Stop
Fig.11: Distance Between all 3
Fig.9: ‘COOP’ bus stop
Fig.10: Distance from stairs
The village I lived in is extremely middle class and so are the 2 other surrounding villages that filled up the rest of my High School. However, if I wanted to visit my new High School friends from the next village, that now don’t live just a 20-minute maximum walk or 10-minute maximum cycle away but are upwards of an hour walk or half an hour cycle away, where I have to commute on long stretches next to main roads with the path cutting in and out periodically as well as the journey there being majority up an enormous incline. Pair this with parents who are too busy working and my newfound teenage independence, I started looking at buses. The bus cuts down the journey to about 45-minutes of less energy intensive travel but you still need to walk about 15-minutes either side because the bus stops are only on the main roads and ignore a lot of residential areas24. At this point it will shock you to know that, if I could convince a parent to drive me, the whole commute would be 10-minutes maximum, the huge difference in time being mainly because the bus stops leave a lot of residential areas a 20-minute walk away from the nearest stop. Which makes the commute that bit more scarier the longer it gets by adding more variables and therefore more risks. What you won’t be surprised to know is that because of all these factors visiting friends in the winter when it’s darker via bus became very few and far between. Cutting my social time and circle down during a very socially formative time in my life.
What’s interesting about this is the reason why the bus routes where I live are so bad is because most people in my area have a car, often more than one25. Because people can (and would rather) drive, they do26. But if I took a drive 10-minutes in the other direction to my friend’s house I would reach a less well-off area, Linwood. As famously mentioned in the hit Proclaimers song ‘Letter from America’:
“Bathgate no more, Linwood no more, Methil no more, Irvine no more,” -from album‘This Is the Story’by ‘The Proclaimers’, 1987
The bus system in Linwood is more frequent, more reliable and more used, compared to my village. Granted, it is a town and has approximately 1,200 more people than my village27, but I do believe that where the bus stops are placed make a lot of sense and that encourages people to use them. For example, the bus I take goes right through Linwood and it stops in many residential areas, as well as at big shops, charities shops and even a primary school*4. The stops in my village do go by a High School, Primary School and the pre-discussed CO-OP, but the state and use of these stops are badly kept compared to Linwood. It seems that ‘if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it’ applies to buses too, so Linwood gets to keep their superior public transport.
*4 While looking into the population of Linwood I unintentionally stumbled across some recent social history that probably plays a big part in why the bus system is better for them. For many decades now Linwood has been declining economically as some contaminated land, from the remnants of the different factories that once made Linwood thrive, was now affecting the lives of the locals. On August 10th 2006, ‘Linwood Sucks’ a local community action group, was created to expose and tackle the problems that were affecting Linwood at the time. Including, accepting the award of “Plook on a Plinth” or the “Worst Town” award for Scotland in December 2011. Along with another (more positively named) group ‘Linwood Action’ and the new publicity of the need for change, they began to get the community up and running again. I think Linwood’s dedication over the past decade improving its town and community has definitely helped their bus system stay active. Buses and public transport play a huge role in maintaining the community and they’ve done their research into what’s needed, what’s useful and what works, and it’s stuck.
24 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
25 ‘Scottish Transport Statistics 2022: Road Transport Vehicles’ (Transport Scotland, March 2023) <https://www.transport.gov.scot/ media/53039/chapter-1-road-transport-vehicles-scottish-transport-statistics-2022.pdf>.
26 Jack Thomson, ‘More than Two Thirds of Survey Responses Unhappy with Renfrewshire Bus Services as McGill’s Hit Back’, Daily Record, 10 May 2024, section Renfrewshire Live - Buses <https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/in-your-area/renfrewshire/more-two-thirds-surveyresponses-32781659>.
27 ‘Linwood (United Kingdom)’, City Population, 25 May 2024 <https://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/scotland/renfrewshire/ S52000406__linwood/>.
What area are they situated near e.g. industrial estates or parks
Statistically, men are less likely to use the bus, but if they do, they are primarily using it to get to employment28. When they are not using the bus, they are 71% of the time driving to work using the household car29, meaning non-men are often left to rely on public transport*3 for their needs that day. When using the bus non-men are mainly using it for care-related travel such as food shopping, looking after a relative, taking children to school, etc.30 But bus stops are much more likely to be situated in ‘employment’ sectors as it is deemed as ‘compulsory mobility’ and care-related travel is not31. This implies that domestic work (overwhelmingly globally done by non-men)32 isn’t as essential to society, which is completely untrue. One of the main excuses for not adhering to the travel patterns of non-men is they tend to be more sporadic than men and that can be hard to keep track of. This is because most transport services (including buses) in the UK are based on the ‘hub and spoke model’33 which caters for people who want to travel into urban busy areas like a town or city centers in the morning, and then back home to the suburbs in the evening. Which means if you are trip chaining you will most likely have to suffer several bus changes and long walks in between. ‘Trip/chore chaining’34 is when you’re dropping the kids off at school, before checking in on your elderly aunt and on your way home getting the weekly shop. Which, you were informed at the beginning of this paragraph, is care related travel and is majority done by non-men. These habits would be more easily tracked if there were bus systems that accommodated it, but as of right now it is deemed as sporadic because women are much more likely to make shorter, more frequent trips in local areas, than just one trip to one stop to an employment area and back.
*3 I am aware that not every household has a stereotypical heterosexual couple35 with a breadwinning man36, but in the UK, this is the most common household.
If you have ever lived in an area that leans on the less industrial side, then you’ll know how hard it is to get public transport between villages. And you can guess who the majority of people who are relying on public transport to get to these places are37. For parts of my life growing up my dad worked away, it would sometimes be for just the weekdays, it would sometimes be weeks at a time, and we didn’t always have 2 cars, either because one of them was in the garage or we simply couldn’t afford it. So, during these times, if my Mum (at the time a woman in her late 30’s) wanted to take us to see my Grandparents, who lived two villages over, it would be quite the ordeal. Starting with a 20-minute walk to the previously mentioned CO-OP bus stop, because she couldn’t push the pram through the woods, also me and my sisters knew the walk as it was on our way to primary school. Then about 20 minutes on a bus with a pram and four kids under the age of 9, and an extra 20-minute walk to my Grandparents house from the nearest stop38. This adds up to an hour-long commute for a 12-minute drive. Luckily my Grandparents were very active and able to drive, so my Mum received a lot of support from them during these times and I only remember actually doing this once because it was such a hassle. But that is a sometimes daily reality for non-men who need to travel to neighbouring areas for care-related reasons and because of where bus stops are, their journeys are significantly lengthened because their only option is the bus. I was privileged enough to have family members close by to help my parents out when they needed it, but a lot of people are losing time and money because of gender biased bus stop planning.
28 Gill, ‘Public Transport and Gender’.
29 Gill, ‘Public Transport and Gender’.
30 Gill, ‘Public Transport and Gender’.
31 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
32 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women.
33 Gill, ‘Public Transport and Gender’.
34 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women.
35 Amanda Sharfman and Pamela Cobb, Families and Households in the UK (Office for National Statistics, 18 May 2023) <https://www. ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/bulletins/familiesandhouseholds/2022#families>.
36 Brigid Francis-Devine and Georgina Hutton, Women and the UK Economy (House of Commons Library, 4 March 2024) <https:// commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06838/>.
37 Gill, ‘Public Transport and Gender’.
38 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
On a more positive note. An even more rural situation I became aware of was my co-worker (a woman in her late 50’s) at a restaurant I used to work my holidays at in rural Perthshire. She lives in Dull, which is a village that is really a collection of almost exclusively houses (some of them being holiday homes) in an off shoot from the main country road that passes through the rural area. The shop closest to her is in Aberfeldy, which is only a 9-minute drive away, but she doesn’t have a car. So, it’s 1 hour and 20-minute walk, along a 60mph road, where there isn’t any path till the last 20 minutes through the village, or the bus. I remember speaking to her about the bus system once and she mentioned that if you were lucky the school bus would give you a lift if there were spaces left!39 The regular bus only comes on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, and runs five times each day, in both directions, between 9am-5pm but my coworker doesn’t seem to mind that much because this is just how she is used to living. This is a situation where there actually is bus stops to link her to the nearest shops and the bus also connects up all the local villages in the surrounding area. She’s also lucky to only live a 10-minute walk away from one of its stops. I’ve seen her bus stop when dropping her off or picking her up from work, and it is less than adequate (Fig.12). I’ve asked her about it, and she says she just stands on the side of the road as she can’t always get to it, and it usually makes her shoes muddy anyway. And if she wanted to go the other direction the bus stop on the other side of the road doesn’t even have a marker or post, never mind a shelter40 (Fig.13) *4. In the Highlands of Scotland, where “you can get 4 seasons in 1 day!”, a phrase my mother would use, has an overgrown bus shelter on one side of a community reliant bus route and nothing on the other.
*4Interestingly I found some of the old pictures of this stop on Google Maps and somewhere between 2010-2016 there was an upgrade from a wooden and dark bus shelter that seem to be used as scooter storage for local children, to the now Perspex and metal bus shelter, so at least there is some progress
Fig.12: My co-worker’s bus stop - to Aberfeldy (unfortunatley taken on a very sunny day where the mud isn’t an issue) Dull End Road: Jun 2023 - Google Maps
Fig.13: My co-worker’s bus stop - to Dull (again, unfortunatley taken on a very sunny day where mud and shelter isn’t an issue) Dull End Road: Jun 2023 - Google Maps
Fig.D: My co-worker’s bus stop in 2009 - to Aberfeldy Dull End Road: Jul 2009 - Google Maps
Fig.E: My co-worker’s bus stop in 2009 - to Dull Dull End Road: Jul 2009 - Google Maps
Fig.14: The Architectural Review Vol.120 July-December 1956
Aesthetics Over Function
My coworker’s bus stop isn’t the only one to look like this and still be in use. It is almost entirely inaccessible, not even just to wheelchair users but people with prams, people with bikes, people who need to sit down more often e.g. pensioners. And as well as non-men being more likely to be the ones using the bus, they make up the majority of the elderly, disabled and primary carers who would be helping people with mobility issues 41 so will be even less likely to be able to access the necessary shelter from the harsh highland weather while waiting on the bus.
When I started researching public design, I came across architect Ian Nairn and found myself getting a bit infuriated with him, I found that whenever I go to the edges of my village or see bus shelters like the one in Dull, I think of his opinions on bus shelters in rural areas:
“No shelters in the wild because the point of going there is to submit to nature: physical discomfort is as much a part of that ‘mental liberation’.”42
Just because someone chooses to live somewhere beautiful, it doesn’t mean they don’t want a functioning bus stop. Nairn is someone I would argue who did enjoy beautiful designs without thinking of the functionality, but I do find sometimes he took it a bit too far.
How Practicality is ignored e.g. accessibility and size, wheelchair and pram access, etc.
When it comes to street design, one of the first and loudest complainers was Ian Nairn, who was a popular architectural journalist throughout his adult life in the mid to late 20th century43, and is still wildly known in the world of public design. In ‘The Architectural Review Vol.120 July-December 1956’ (Fig 14) 44, he took on the design of bus stops. Some of the things he states in this are just outrageous from the perspective of non-men. He constantly promotes the design of bus stops that either offer no shelter from the weather or have dark alcoves and are out the way of the average person. All in the name of aesthetics, which is clearly his priority here. I’m not saying all bus stops need to look terrible, but when it comes to the design of public furniture safety should definitely be a higher priority than aesthetics. I can also recognise that Nairn is not the winner here and bus stops have become more of what he would call ‘an interruption’ but better and safer designs are still not being put in place because of people who have similar concerns to Nairn are getting in the way.
41 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
42 Ian Nairn, ‘Casebook’, Architectural Review, 120.Counter-Attack (1956), p. 373.
43 Stephen Parnell, ‘Ian Nairn: The Pioneer of Outrage’, The Architectural Review, 27 May 2014 <https://www.architectural-review.com/ essays/outrage/ian-nairn-the-pioneer-of-outrage>.
44 Herring, Street Furniture Design
“No shelters in a metropolis because porches and doorways are always near at hand and the busses are frequent: there is anyway no room in a metropolitan street for even the simplest shelter.”45
Starting in the city, Nairn primarily believes that the hustle and bustle of the metropolis is simply too much for the interruption of a bus stop. He believes that bus stops, especially in busier areas in any setting, should look like they could be picked up and put away easily as then they are not a real interruption or otherwise have them blend into the surroundings. This means that the bus stops are not to provide any real shelter from the elements or are to be tucked away and hard to identify, unless we’re talking about bus stops in a city in which case, Nairn believes there shouldn’t be any. I feel in this case Nairn’s ideas to tidy up the city scape are unrealistic. I don’t think there would be many people nowadays that would agree with this as it is simply not useful on a windy or rainy day to make bus stops essentially flat-packed. It is even more impractical to hide them away/not have them at all as how would people know where to wait for what bus if they were in an new area for the first time and also how unsafe that practice would be. Hiding a bus stop out of public view inherently creates a dangerous environment for everyone, but more so for non-men46. Lived experiences change people’s priorities in life and clearly Nairn has never experienced a dangerous presence in covered up areas when trying to get shelter from the rain.
I feel Nairn’s opinions can still be found anywhere that has a bus post instead of a shelter. In the strangest instances I’ve seen random posts in grass with nowhere to stand in the countryside, a random bit of path on the side of a main road at the edge of a Crieff with the stop being a sign tied to a lamp-post (Fig 15) and more recently I’ve seen a few spaced-out live times bus posts with one long shelter with all the bus schedules in the middle in Paisley’s center (Fig 16). I think the idea of a bus post is becoming less popular, I often only see it combined with a shelter which makes a lot of sense to me as what use is a bus stop with no shelter … in Scotland, which is famous for bad weather. It has made bus stops more accessible and inviting and often gives people who need it a place to sit, not to mention the sense of security. And as already covered the people in our society who would benefit the most from this are majority non-men.
45 Nairn, ‘Casebook’.
46 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
Fig.16: Post with multiple shelters - Paisley Main Street
Fig.15: Post thats a Lamp post - Creiff Glof Club
I don’t think you would find anyone who agrees with Nairn on wanting to eradicate bus stop identifiers, but you would find a few who would want them to take up less space, when in actuality I believe they should be bigger and so should the paths. If you’ve been paying attention over the past few years to the extremely interesting topic of bus stops, you would have noticed more of them getting renovated to add a bigger pavement, higher curb, and a bigger shelter/upgrading from post to shelter. This is part of the Scottish Governments ‘Transport Act 2019: Bus Services’ 47, where bus stops (and many other aspects of bus travel) are to be improved upon. It has done wonders in terms of accessibility on all fronts. To begin with, the bigger pavements make it easier for passersby to avoid the bus stops when walking past them but also makes it safer for the users as they are further away from the road, and therefore at lower risk of falling onto the road, or even just getting splashed. The higher curbs (Fig 17) mean that people who struggle to take big steps up and down from the buses won’t have as much of a challenge, not to mention making it easier for wheelchair and pram users (which I’m sure I don’t need to remind you are majority non-men)48. And finally, the addition/upgrade to the shelters gives a more solid place of waiting often with seating, lighting and a greater sense of security. I haven’t just seen this in cities but even a few bus stops in my village (Fig 18) have been upgraded with some or all of these aspects and it does make me feel a lot better waiting for a bus, more sheltered and more safe49
47 ‘Implementing Part Three of the Transport (Scotland) Act of 2019: Bus Services - Analysis of Consultation Responses’, Transport Scotland, 11 March 2022 <https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/implementing-part-three-of-the-transport-scotland-act-2019-bus-servicesanalysis-of-consultation-responses/bus-service-improvement-partnerships/>.
48 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
49 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
Higher Curbs
Fig.17: Higher curbs Leman Drive - to Glasgow
Fig.18: Upgraded shelter Leman Drive - to Greenock
How practicality is ignored in bus stop seating specifically
Whilst on the topic of bus stops upgrades and more specifically their seating, I have noticed something quite niche and quite negative about it. And I know this seems like a strange place to start but, since the 18th century when large skirts went out of fashion and a more form fitting silhouette was in, non-men have suffered through no pockets or 48% shorter and 6.5% thinner pockets than their male counter parts50. Not to mention the ever-present beauty standards that make us much more likely to also be carrying a variety of items such as a hair brush, clips/bobbles, lip gloss, mascara, powder, tissues, the list goes on. This has been aided in recent years with the popularity of luxury handbags and the fashion industry’s issue of causing a problem (tiny pockets that don’t fit anything) and creating a profit hiking solution (expensive bags for you to buy and put all your things in)51. This has created a society where most non-men usually don’t leave the house without a bag of some sort because the phones, keys, tissues, wallets and general bits’n’bobs that fit in men’s trouser, jumper and jacket pockets, will not fit in ours. So, when you see things like the seating at my old regular bus stop that is just a bar that seems to be as close to the shelter’s wall as possible and annoyingly sloped forward (Fig 19), I wonder where your bag is supposed to go? If you’re wearing a backpack you will be forced forward on to the edge of the bar. If you have a tote bag or a bigger handbag and want to put it on the seat next to you, watch out because (as I’ve learned many a time from personal experience) the sloped seating means it will probably slide off and hit the floor, possibly spilling everything out of your bag onto the unhygienic pavement. And if you have a smaller bag you want to rest on your lap you might still have to keep an eye on it from falling off your legs that are sloped because of the seating as well!52
I have also found that the little old ladies that wait at the bus with me struggle to sit on this seat as the it is just too high for them53, with the average height for a woman in Scotland being 5ft 4in, and height decreasing with age54 sometimes these bus users can only manage to lean on a seat made for the average 5ft 7in man55.
I am aware that not all bus stops are like this, I have noticed the bus I get in Glasgow that takes me back from the shops has great seating. It is low and deep and doesn’t slope forward, meaning small children can even comfortably sit on it 56(Fig 20). This is also clearly a newer bus stop than the ones in my village as it also includes the live electronic timetable, so maybe councils are taking bus seating into consideration. I am also extremely aware that men often share these issues of being short or carrying bags, but majority of the people you will see leaning uncomfortably or placing their bag or the dirty ground at a bus stop will be nonDestination TBC, 11 February 2021 <https://destinationtbc.com/why-dontwomens-clothes-have-bigger-pockets/>.
51 ‘Why Don’t Women’s Clothes Have Bigger Pockets?’
52 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
53 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
54 Catherine Bromley, Paul Bradshaw, and Lisa Given, Scottish Health Survey 2008 (Scottish Government, 2009).
55 Bromley, Bradshaw, and Given, Scottish Health Survey 2008
56 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
57 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
Fig.19: Seating at my local stop, Gryfebank Ave - to Glasgow
Fig.19.5: Seating in city centre Glasgow
How well kept they are e.g. graffiti, broken parts, litter, etc.
Bus stops are meant to be occupied, they are meant to have people wait at them for a length of time while the bus makes it’s way to you. But to find a well-kept, clean and useful bus stop is almost a miracle. Whether foliage is growing in, drunken messes are made while people stumble home or seats are broken from vandals, bus stops are usually in a state of disrepair. Naturally, bus stops that aren’t pleasant looking, will have people quite reluctant to use them due to an underlying disdain and fear, meaning less people using buses, then less funding all together. An example of this is my old work colleague who just ignored her bus stop entirely because of the foliage inside it58, and she’s not the only person I’ve talked to who is affected by overgrown bus stops.
For example, there is a bus stop across from a primary school I sometimes use if I’m in the old village area (Fig 21) when visiting home. In the warmer months it’s completely surrounded by plants, and you can’t even see the bus coming if you want/need to lean against the side as there is no seat in this particular bus stop59 They cut back the foliage, along with the hedges that grow on to the paths you need to walk on in order to get to this bus stop, about 2-3 times a year meaning for about 4-5 months of the year you have to stand outside the shelter and walk on the roads to get use of this bus stop. I have also found that I meet more elderly commuters coming from this bus stop as the old village has lot of people who have lived in the same house for decades and I usually offer to tell them when the bus is coming so that they can lean on and actually get some shelter from this particular bus stop60. As previously discussed, (and from what I have noticed at bus stops) the majority of elderly and/or disabled people are non-men, so I see them be more affected by this lack of seating and visibility of the bus61. At this stop there is often an issue with overflowing bins and left plastic bags for the bin, as a lot of school kids from both the High School and the Primary School walk by here. This isn’t something that is new, kids have snacks or general rubbish and need to throw out almost constantly, the schools have been there for decades and yet no one has figured out maybe a second bin or a more frequent schedule of emptying it. And though it’s easy to blame young people for the majority of the vandalism, people forget that the council plays a part in it too, e.g. litter is vandalism, and overflowing bins don’t help this problem. So, the bus stop stays a mess, and less people use it62.
58 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
59 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
60 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
61 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
62 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
Fig.20: Seating coming back from the shops, Springburn Rd - to Bus Station
Fig.21: View of where bus comes from, St Fillians Primary Schoolto Glasgow
Bus comes round this corner No seating
Fig.23: Smashed Perspex, Gryfebank Ave bus stop - to Greenock
Fig.22: Loitering teens, Suburban Edinburgh - to Suburbs
Speaking of young people, it seems bus stops are almost a ‘hang-out’ spot for them, I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a bus stop filled with teenagers (Fig 22) *5, especially since the success of the ‘Under 22’s Go Free’ bill that was passed63 in Scotland. I’ve watched school kids pile on the bus at lunch to go to their local chippy and seen all the adults on the bus grumble and fuss while the school kids make a ruckus for two stops then get off, despite this being exactly what the Bill was supposed to encourage (casual use of public transport in young people)64. Teenagers hanging out at bus stops is not in any way a new phenomenon, especially in the most recent decade due to the 70% decline in youth funding65, meaning teen-aimed community centres have been declining too. Kids hanging out at bus stops, especially the more secluded ones make them prime spots for vandalism. Whether its smashing (Fig 23), scratching or melting the Perspex with a lighter (Fig 24) or the simple spray paint or sharpie, you will find it hard to locate an untouched bus stop. These conditions can often lead to bus stops being less accessible, e.g. smashed Perspex/ glass on the floor means it’s harder for wheelchairs and prams, not to mention guide dogs to traverse the terrain, it also inhibits on the amount of shelter someone gets from the weather. Not to mention it also develops an unsafe environment in general which deters people from using these bus stops, and statistically, when non-men are more perceptive of signs of a dangerous atmosphere like graffiti or litter, they are also more likely to avoid those places and feel more anxious around them66, leading them to possibly use them less.
*5 I didn’t want to take a photo of kids I didn’t know at a bus stop as chances where they were under 16 and would need parental permission for a photo (not to mention possibly hostile towards strange people taking a million photos of a bus stop), so I got my cousins to help get this very realistic photo.
The quality and state a bus stop is kept in can be a huge deterrent for use. Which you can see when a bus stop gets the upgrades that make it more accessible like the bigger pavement, higher curbs and better seating, as I see them being used more than the random sign that is attached to a lamppost to save space and resources that it might previously have been67. With these bigger paths and higher curbs specifically, I have noticed a drop in the number of times the bus driver has to get up and help a person step onto or off the bus, as the curbs are now made to stop such big gaps between them and the bus68. And when bus stops are used more, they become less of a ‘hang out spot’ for teenagers as there would now be witnesses to their rebellion. Creating a safer and less ominous atmosphere around bus stops, as studies show that fear of crime and violence is one of the main reasons non-men choose to avoid public transport altogether69. So, in the case of bus stops, I really do believe that bigger is indeed better.
63 ‘Over 150 Million Journeys Made by Young People Using Free Bus Pass’.
64 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
65 Rochaya Lee, ‘Why Are Young Brits Falling Through the Gap?’, Shout Out UK, 27 April 2023 <https://www.shoutoutuk. org/2023/04/27/why-are-young-brits-falling-through-the-gap/>.
66 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
67 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
68 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
69 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
Fig.24: Melted Prespex, ‘COOP’ bus stop - to Glasgow
Updated Technology and the Effects on Safety
Bus stops are not really something you think about when discussing technological upgrades to public facilities. In most people’s heads bus stops are a shelter or a post and that’s it really, with a paper timetable and a bench at most. But the recent upgrades in bus stop technology have benefited countless bus users in their commutes, by keeping them safer, saving time and helping people get the buses that are actually coming.
Live Digital bus times at the stops and trackers on phones
In my opinion, one of the best upgrades in technology that bus stops have added is their live digital times and of course bus tracker apps on phones. They keep you updated on cancellations, they let you know if a bus is late and can even tell you how long it will be till it arrives. For me, this has been life changing, as for some reason, trying to find bus timetables online was an almost impossible experience. When I was younger, I used to rely on photos I took of the physical timetables at bus stops or texted my friend, whose dad took the bus all the time to ask his advice on bus times, for me. But the addition of these tracking appliances has seriously made an impact.
I’ll admit, I was probably the problem when it came to reading online bus timetables. In combination with the website most likely being designed for computer and not phone use I found it extremely difficult to navigate. And after downloading the bus app it definitely felt a lot easier and sleeker to use than the website, but aside from being able to also buy tickets on there, I didn’t see what the difference was between the app and my photos I previously used. That was until I was extremely early for a bus I was getting with a friend to go on a night out, and he asked why I was there so early, as the bus was late and wasn’t even 15 minutes away yet. Shocked I asked how he knew, and he showed me the bus tracking features on the app. As someone who had been getting on the bus about 10 times a week to get to university, this was extremely revolutionary. After some time, I knew when to leave for the bus by checking where it was before I left, to avoid long waits at the bus stop, because my bus was almost always late70. It also meant the fear of missing the bus because it was a bit early or you were a bit late didn’t have to go on till the next bus shows up, you could now quickly check on your phone and know whether you were waiting 5 or 50 minutes. Not to mention being notified of bus cancellations, which was an absolute game changer during stormy weather, as public transport doesn’t always function during these times. This made me feel 10 times safer in the darker colder months as it meant I was no longer unsure of how long I would have to wait in the freezing, dark and sometimes completely empty streets until my bus showed up. I could time when I arrived, even if that was 5 minutes before or after the schedule and know exactly how long I was waiting for the next bus71. Talking to others, this has also been revolutionary in making them feel less anxious at bus stops as well72, to the point that even Loukaitou-Sideris specifically mentioned it along with other progressive public transport technology.
70 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
71 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
72 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
“…the
city of Portland has a digital timetable in the bus stop so you know when the next bus is going to come...”
-Urban Planning Professor, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris73
The live bus tracker is probably my most used feature on the app (including checking bus times) and it’s incredibly helpful in more rural areas where there isn’t a physical digital board displaying the live times, as you are still able to get the same effect but on your phone. Despite this, you would not believe how many times I’ve tried to show this feature to the old ladies who wait for the bus with me, and explain just how helpful and time saving it is, for them to be completely baffled or make a comment like “I’ll have to get my grandkids to help me with that one” or “my daughter usually does that for me”74. However, I am yet to see anyone confused by the live digital bus times signs built into the bus stops themselves. When getting a bus from Buchanan Bus Station there is a digital live time post at every stance, it lets you know the next 4 buses that will arrive, if there are any cancellations and best of all it lets you know if a bus will be late. I have never seen one of these old ladies that get so confused with the app even flinch at reading the digital signs, the most I’ve heard is a few grumbles about them being a minute or two out of sync75. I think the introduction of these live digital signs in as many bus stops as possible would be even more beneficial than the apps as it becomes more accessible to the less tech savvy age groups like the elderly or ones who maybe don’t have access to data 4G and therefore can’t keep up to date with the live changes on the app. It has been achieved in 2020, in my Grandpa’s village76 which is very close to mine but in a different constituency so has different funding (Fig.25). As previously mentioned, both in my research and experience, the people I have seen struggle without and benefit with the digital live times is older people, who are majority nonmen77. I know this is a more expensive and less essential fix than the higher curbs and bigger bus stops, but there have been times that I have shown up to a bus stop and chatted to an old lady waiting there only to find she didn’t know the last bus was cancelled and had been waiting in the cold standing (because the seat was inaccessible to her), for the last 40 minutes78. These fixes may seem unessential to this increasingly phonefocused world but there are some definite benefits to splashing out a bit for the benefit of bus users.
73 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women.
74 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
75 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
76 Lorraine Tinney, ‘New Bus Stops That Will Provide “live Travel” Information Are Welcomed’, Greenock Telegraph, 23 December 2020 <https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/18959040.new-bus-stops-will-provide-live-travel-information-welcomed/>.
77 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
78 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
Fig.25: Councillor David Wilson at new ‘live times’ bus stops, ‘New Bus Stops That Will Provide “live Travel” Information Are Welcomed’, Greenock Telegraph
Fig.26: Poor lighting due to solid roof, Leman drive bus stop - to Glasgow
Fig.27:LED’s inside bus shelter, city centre Glasgow
Lighting the actual shelter and the areas around it
As previously discussed in the section about commuting to bus stops, appropriate lighting plays a huge part in making safe paths to and from stops. However, suitable lighting at bus stops is also needed in order to create a less dangerous environment, specifically for non-men while they wait on their buses. In her book ‘Invisible Women’ Criado-Perez states;
“Women are often scared in public spaces. In fact, they are around twice as likely to be scared as men.”
She goes on to state that women will avoid public transport, modes, routes and times, especially nighttime79 due to this fear. Which is shown by women making the majority of bus users in general but making a small minority of night bus users80. Criado-Perez continues by making the fair assumption that fear has a role to play in this, which is not helped by the often-poor lighting associated with crime at night.
I am always surprised at the lack of lighting, especially in bus shelters. If you’re lucky, there might be lamp posts next to or near your bus shelters but because they have a roof to protect you from the rain it also stops majority of the light getting in from an overhead source81, like said lamp posts that you so luckily have been supplied (Fig.26). However, I have noticed in recent years that in some of the newer bus stops they have provided lighting inside them via LED bars (Fig.27) which are sometimes even powered by little solar panels on top of the shelters (Fig.28). Unfortunately, this is very few and far between and I haven’t really seen people talking about it either. If I’m ever traveling by bus in the dark, I don’t ever stand inside the shelter as it’s usually darker in there than standing outside, not to mention I am far less scared standing closer to a light source than being hidden away under a dark bus shelter. This does mean that I get no shelter or seating from the bus stop because I am too scared to use it82. When I lived at home and would travel into Glasgow for a night out, I would meet my friend (at the time a man in his late teens) at our bus stop. Sometimes he would be sitting inside already but I wouldn’t ever know if it was actually him until I was very close or he noticed me and stood up to say hello because of how dark it gets under the shelter. Although the chances were that it was in fact my friend sitting there, I always had a thought at the back of my mind it wasn’t, and I would have to stand in the dark near a mysterious and unknown man on a mostly empty street for a few minutes alone83. When I asked why he sits under the shelter when it’s dark outside, he asked why he wouldn’t, he’d rather sit and wait, than stand and wait. It didn’t really cross his mind that people might be scared to do so or even be scared of him doing so. I mentioned it to our other friends when we met them on the bus and unsurprisingly the people who agreed with me weren’t men84. If there was some kind of lighting in the shelter this wouldn’t have been an issue at all, but unfortunately this isn’t yet the most common form of bus stop design and I, along with many other non-men, have to live in this very real fear of violent crime at public transport stops85. No, I didn’t have to deal with the actual situation of an unknown man or violent act in those instances, but now I live in Glasgow and still need to take buses when it’s dark, and I now have to face this reality quite often. But at least this time it’s usually on a much busier street than before, so it’s not as scary? Right?
79 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women.
80 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
81 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
82 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
83 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
84 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
85 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
Fig.28: Solar panels inside shelter, Highburgh Road - to Glasgow
In fact, I often find myself being much more likely to take other forms of transport at night to avoid bus stops in secluded dark areas or even just a badly lit bus shelter. Meaning I am more likely to be spending money on things like the well-lit Subway or a taxi, as I wouldn’t be using my free bus card86. Or even just leaving earlier to walk the whole way down busier, better lit streets or get a different bus from the welllit Buchanan Bus station and often lengthening my journey by a bit. This leads to me spending more on a night out or having less time beforehand to get ready, a complaint I shared with my flat mate (a woman in her early 20’s), and she totally agrees. On a night out, she much prefers taxi’s because it is much safer than walking or public transport but often skips out on them as the cost piles up, so we walk together in an anxious state trying to ignore cat calls and stares from men87. Getting the bus would cut down on the amount of time we would need to be walking and exposed to these jeers but because we don’t want to risk being stuck waiting in a dark area for a bus with a random man, we walk the main lit up streets and deal with other random men but this time in the open and on the move88.
Lighting under bus shelters is badly needed, but because there might be a lamp post in the area around it, they often end up being forgotten, and then the shelter might not even be used for shelter as non-men are too scared to use it. Ignoring the very justified fear of violence and crime89 non-men deal with when trying to relax and socialize in the evening with the rest of the population. Often making us spend more money on other forms of transport, but also on drinks at the bar because we didn’t have more time to save some money and ‘pre-drink’ at home because we wanted to avoid a possibly dangerous situation90. Essentially punishing us for trying to enjoy ourselves but trying to keep safe at the same time.
CCTV and just any kind of security system
As we know, feeling unsafe is a huge reason why non-men limit their bus travel91, especially at night. But how can councils and the government change this? What security measures can help? Well, back in 2007 Glasgow added 3 new security cameras in bus stops that had high rates of vandalism92. The hope was that the council could save some money on mending the shelters by being a deterrent, as well as any bus stop built in town after this point was to have a space for the cameras to be inserted to help cut down on costs as these cameras could be moved around to different bus stops instead of being stationary. This initiative was advertised mainly to save money and prevent bus stops from being vandalised93 and tacked on was making people feel safer. As we know saving money is a priority.
CCTV cameras are the cheapest and most common ways of providing security in public transport stops94, but non-men are definitely not its biggest defender. Many studies have shown that non-men have been very suspicious of how effective it is95. Many have said they are sceptical there is even a camera or a person watching, and if they were they might be miles and miles away, how are they going to help if something bad happened? The only positive that anyone in these reports has brought up is at least there will be a record of it so that could act as a bit of a deterrent, but what came up a lot was that real people, weather that’s drivers or station workers or security guards, being about helped non-men feel a great deal safer96. Non-men reported the reason for this being not just as someone who could physically protect them, but someone they could report an incident too, someone who would stand by them while something was happening, someone who could at least witness and stay alert to their safety, and yes someone to step in and help them physically if needed too97. Having people around makes people feel safer, especially authority figures like staff, who know more than you and could step in if needed in a trained and valuable way.
86 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
87 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
88 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
89 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
90 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
91 Kate Skellington Orr and others, ‘Women’s and Girls’ Views and Experiences of Personal Safety When Using Public Transport: Practical Measures to Support Feelings of Safety’ (Transport Scotland, 7 March 2023) <https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/12853596.busstop-cctv-will-make-city-a-safer-place/>.
92 ‘Bus Stop CCTV Will Make City a Safer Place’, Glasgow Times, 21 October 2007, Herald and Times Archive edition.
93 ‘Bus Stop CCTV Will Make City a Safer Place’.
94 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
95 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women; Skellington Orr and others, ‘Practical Measures to Support Feelings of Safety’.
96 Skellington Orr and others, ‘Practical Measures to Support Feelings of Safety’.
97 Skellington Orr and others, ‘Practical Measures to Support Feelings of Safety’.
Although, people being there isn’t extremely helpful if you are unable to communicate to them your problem. Non-men reported in these studies that some kind of panic button or procedure would definitely help them feel listened too and believed when reporting incidents98. However, they don’t often feel this way as catcalling, groping, and other harassing acts are often seen as ‘common’ or ‘minor’ and non-men feel that if they reported something it would get lost in the sea of other similar complaints99. Nottingham police tried to negate this by classing all of these ‘common’ and ‘minor’ offences as hate crimes and there was a huge influx of reports, not because there was a sudden boom in sexual harassment, but because people felt heard100. Giving staff protocol and training for these kinds of situations too would help non-men feel a lot safer using public transport. For example, there are some systems in place in other sectors of society that I think could be modified and work here. Like in bars, where in the toilets there are signs everywhere that if you are in an uncomfortable situation then you are to “Ask for Angela” at the bar and the staff will help you out101. I feel there could be a similar protocol in place where instead of bar staff its bus drivers, and station staff, creating a safe and discrete alert to an incident allowing people to leave safely. Transport Scotland seem to be attempting this with some initiatives102 but I have yet to see public awareness for it.
I’m aware that security systems at bus stops seem to be a bit of a luxury, especially in small towns or villages but non-men have actually reported that they often feel significantly safer when they are in areas they know with people they know, than in big cities with strangers103. So at least councils could cut some costs and focus on cites for now before expanding to the rest of the country, which I know would make the people who prioritise saving over safety extremely happy, as well as dealing with a problem area before expanding. Non-men have been changing routines and lifestyles for years just to feel safe using public transport and their stops104, the least the council can do is attempt to keep them safe.
98 Skellington Orr and others, ‘Practical Measures to Support Feelings of Safety’.
99 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
100 Criado-Perez, Invisible Women
101 ‘What Is Ask for Angela?’, Ask for Angela, 2022 <https://askforangela.co.uk/advice/>.
102 Skellington Orr and others, ‘Practical Measures to Support Feelings of Safety’.
103 Skellington Orr and others, ‘Practical Measures to Support Feelings of Safety’.
104 Skellington Orr and others, ‘Practical Measures to Support Feelings of Safety’.
Fig.29: Leman Drive - to Greenock: Jun 2019 - Google Maps
Fig.30: Leman Drive - to Greenock: Arp 2024 - Google Maps
Conclusion
All of this put together, it always makes me think how many more non-men would use this bus if these flaws were fixed. We already make up most users and definitely have a need for more use, so imagine the influx of bus use, for men too, and the inherent benefit to non-men financially, socially and practically, if even just some of it was sorted. This problem of bus stop design as well as huge parts of public design and its effect on non-men, has been brought more recently to light. With examples like, Glasgow embracing ‘feminist urbanism’ to become the UK’s ‘first feminist city’105, this entails asking non-men what the want/need and trying to implement it, decentering men and trying to create a safer and better experience for a more diverse group of people.106 This is a big step forward in a very good direction, that I hope to see followed by as many cities as possible in the very near future in their public furniture and bus stops.
To answer my research question “To What Extent is the Design of bus stops Gender Biased?” I would have to say, like most current public furniture, to a large extent. But I do see that changing. For example, even in the past few years with the ‘Transport Act 2019: Bus Services’107, books like ‘Invisible Women’ gaining traction, and the just mentioned Glasgow ‘feminist city’ motion, I personally have noticed a significant difference in bus stops and their design108 (Fig.29 & 30), but there is still a very long way to go. I am speaking from mainly my own experience, and that experience is young, middle class, able-bodied, cispassing and white, so there are some gaps I have tried to fill or speak on and some that are too big to get into with this essay. But I feel that there is hope for more research and studies in the future to expand and develop this subject because I found myself struggling to find relevant research, so I hope this fills some gaps for other bus stop enthusiasts out there.
While writing this essay I found myself noticing gender biased design all over the place, not just at bus stops. Reading all these reports, statistics and studies has made me extra aware of the sexist design of the world around us, and hyper conscious of its effects. There was simply too much information to write about in public design, so I funneled it into bus stop design. The points I make and the information I show applies to a lot more than just bus stops, and I hope it gets you to think; what else could be gender biased design? I hope it gets you to be more active in public policy making, maybe by joining grassroots campaign groups like ‘Get Glasgow Moving’109, or maybe writing a letter to your MP every week or even just spreading awareness and talking to your friends about the design flaws that affect you and your community. I hope you have gained a new way of thinking about design that isn’t purely based on aesthetics or cost, but on who it affects and why.
105 Giulia Carbonaro, ‘Glasgow Set to Become the UK’s First “Feminist City”’, EuroNews, 7 November 2022 <https://www.euronews. com/culture/2022/11/07/glasgow-set-to-become-the-uks-first-feminist-city>.
106 Carbonaro, ‘Glasgow Set to Become the UK’s First “Feminist City”’.
107 ‘Bus Stop Improvement Partnership’.
108 Reid, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’.
109 ‘Demand Better Public Transport’, Get Glasgow Moving <https://www.getglasgowmoving.org/> [accessed 21 March 2023].
Bibliography
BBC, ‘Second Man Charged over Sandie Butler Death’, BBC News UK: Glasgow and West, 8 October 2024 <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0jy3py242o>
Bromley, Catherine, Paul Bradshaw, and Lisa Given, Scottish Health Survey 2008 (Scottish Government, 2009)
‘Bus Stop CCTV Will Make City a Safer Place’, Glasgow Times, 21 October 2007, Herald and Times Archive edition
Carbonaro, Giulia, ‘Glasgow Set to Become the UK’s First “Feminist City”’, EuroNews, 7 November 2022 <https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/11/07/glasgow-set-to-become-the-uks-first-feminist-city>
Criado-Perez, Caroline, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (Vintage, 2020)
‘Demand Better Public Transport’, Get Glasgow Moving <https://www.getglasgowmoving.org/> [accessed 21 March 2023]
Francis-Devine, Brigid, and Georgina Hutton, Women and the UK Economy (House of Commons Library, 4 March 2024) <https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06838/>
Gill, Rebecca, ‘Public Transport and Gender: Briefing from the UK Women’s Budget Group on Public Transport and Gender’ (Womens Budget Group, October 2019) <https://wbg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/TRANSPORT-2019-1.pdf>
Herring, Eleanor, Street Furniture Design: Contesting Modernism in Post-War Britain (Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2016)
‘Implementing Part Three of the Transport (Scotland) Act of 2019: Bus Services - Analysis of Consultation Responses’, Transport Scotland, 11 March 2022 <https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/implementing-part-three-of-the-transport-scotland-act-2019-bus-services-analysis-of-consultation-responses/bus-service-improvement-partnerships/>
Ingold, Tim, ‘That’s Enough About Ethnography!’, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Volume 4.Number 1 (2014)
Lee, Rochaya, ‘Why Are Young Brits Falling Through the Gap?’, Shout Out UK, 27 April 2023 <https:// www.shoutoutuk.org/2023/04/27/why-are-young-brits-falling-through-the-gap/>
‘Linwood (United Kingdom)’, City Population, 25 May 2024 <https://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/scotland/renfrewshire/S52000406__linwood/>
Nairn, Ian, ‘Casebook’, Architectural Review, 120.Counter-Attack (1956), p. 373
Parnell, Stephen, ‘Ian Nairn: The Pioneer of Outrage’, The Architectural Review, 27 May 2014 <https:// www.architectural-review.com/essays/outrage/ian-nairn-the-pioneer-of-outrage>
Reid, Mhairi, ‘Field Work Notes: 2023 NOV - 2025 JAN’, 3 November 2023
Reland, Joel, ‘Public Spending on Buses Not Down by Half in a Decade’, Full Fact, 20 October 2019 <https://fullfact.org/election-2019/public-spending-buses-not-down-half-decade/>
‘Scottish Transport Statistics 2022: Road Transport Vehicles’ (Transport Scotland, March 2023) <https:// www.transport.gov.scot/media/53039/chapter-1-road-transport-vehicles-scottish-transport-statistics-2022. pdf>
‘Scottish Transport Statistics NO. 39 2020 Edition ~ Summary Transport Statistics’, Transport Scotland, 24 February 2021 <https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/scottish-transport-statistics-no-39-2020-edition/ summary-transport-statistics/>
Sharfman, Amanda, and Pamela Cobb, Families and Households in the UK (Office for National Statistics, 18 May 2023) <https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/ bulletins/familiesandhouseholds/2022#families>
Skellington Orr, Kate, and others, ‘Women’s and Girls’ Views and Experiences of Personal Safety When Using Public Transport: Practical Measures to Support Feelings of Safety’ (Transport Scotland, 7 March 2023) <https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/12853596.bus-stop-cctv-will-make-city-a-safer-place/>
Thomson, Jack, ‘More than Two Thirds of Survey Responses Unhappy with Renfrewshire Bus Services as McGill’s Hit Back’, Daily Record, 10 May 2024, section Renfrewshire Live - Buses <https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/in-your-area/renfrewshire/more-two-thirds-survey-responses-32781659>
Tinney, Lorraine, ‘New Bus Stops That Will Provide “live Travel” Information Are Welcomed’, Greenock Telegraph, 23 December 2020 <https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/18959040.new-bus-stops-willprovide-live-travel-information-welcomed/>
Transport Scotland, ‘Over 150 Million Journeys Made by Young People Using Free Bus Pass’, Transport Scotland, 29 August 2024 <https://www.transport.gov.scot/news/over-150-million-journeys-made-by-youngpeople-using-free-bus-pass/>
‘What Is Ask for Angela?’, Ask for Angela, 2022 <https://askforangela.co.uk/advice/>
‘Why Don’t Women’s Clothes Have Bigger Pockets?’, Destination TBC, 11 February 2021 <https://destinationtbc.com/why-dont-womens-clothes-have-bigger-pockets/>
