Delhi provides the most affordable transportation system of the cities surveyed. The chart fails to show that if you're a woman in Delhi, you're not only getting an inexpensive ride, but also a fair share of lechy stares, ass-grabbing, and worse.
The great* Indian railway system, headed by a woman, is combating the sexual harassment (called eve teasing) by giving women their own commuter trains in India's four largest cities. Male commuters, left with only their own flesh to pinch, are sulking. According to the Times:
As the Ladies Special idled on Track 7 at the station in Palwal, a few men glared from the platform. The Ladies Special was far less crowded, with clean, padded benches and electric fans, compared with the dirty, darkened train on Track 6 filled with sullen men. Vandals sometimes write profanities on the Ladies Special, or worse.
But not all Indian men sit around and pout about poor conditions of their public transportation options. I'll end this with a shout out to my man Elattuvalapil Sreedharan. Charge with build the Delhi Metro from scratch, this brown-skinned Hercules finished three years ahead of schedule and well under budget. After spending a year exploring Delhi by bus and auto rickshaw, I can't wait to ride the metro in my next visit.
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* The Indian Railway is a unique institution. It's the largest employer in the world (1.4. million Indians get a paycheck from the railway), and transports 18 million people every day - equivalent to the population fo Florida.
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