By Amy Schuman

For many women, RTA is the only means of transportation available to get to work, visit a friend, shop, go to school, see a movie, take a child to daycare. Yet RTA is not safe for a woman alone. Rape, assault, robbery and harassment all flourish on RTA property. Rapid platforms, buses, and bus stops are notorious as locations that are unsafe for women.

Because of this, Cleveland Women Take Back the Night Committee (TBTN) has identified adequate security for women on RTA as a goal that cannot be delayed. On Wednesday, September 24, at Cleveland State University, 80 women met with two RTA officials, J. Terango, Director of Transportation, and T. Szmagala, Director of Communications, to demand better security for women on RTA. Also invited was Sarah Vigil, the only transit-dependent member of the RTA Board of Trustees, known for her support of RTA riders.

A Rape Crisis Center counselor opened the meeting with a description of a call she had received the previous night. The woman had been raped on the bus coming home from her job on second shift. Fear of riding the bus late at night had led the woman. to miss too many nights of work, and she finally lost her job. Now, she says, she will probably leave town, because there is no safe way to make a living here in Cleveland.

Four women revealed the personal costs of riding. RTA. They described experiences on RTA in which they were grabbed, robbed, insulted, assaulted and undressed on RTA property. In none of these cases was a security guard anywhere near the site of the assault.

Research conducted by TBN into RTA security revealed that RTA does not take responsibility for security. RTA officials say that transportation, not security, is their business; they believe it is the responsibility of the local police departments of Cuyahoga County to make RTA safe, and that RTA security is intended only to "augment" police protection. RTA is obviously passing the buck. However, the buck they are passing, as one of the TBN speakers noted, is our safety and our lives!

There are about 11 million riders per month on RTA. There are 96 bus lines, many running 7 days a week, some 24 hours a day. The rapids run from 3 a.m. to 12 midnight. To protect all these riders, for all these hours, RTA has authorized a security force of only 40 security guards. This accounts for only 1.2 percent of the RTA operating budget! In a conversation with Mr. Ed Coleman, Chief of Security for RTA, prior to the public meeting, TBN found that only 35 security guards are currently employed by RTA. These 35 cover all three shifts. Mr. Coleman also discussed a study that he made calling for a minimum of 150 security guards for RTA. Although Mr. Terango denied the existence of this report, Ms.

Page 6/What She Wants/October, 1980

WOMEN: ARE YOU

AFRAID TO

USE RTA?

Vigil confirmed its conclusions and its recommendation of 150 guards.

Not one security guard was added to the RTA force from 1975 through 1979, although ridership has increased every year (88 million in 1975, 115.3 million in 1976, 121.6 million in 1977). Five security guards were added this year, however, to guard construction work at Shaker Square! This infuriating fact further demonstrates RTA's commitment to property, not people.

Based upon our research, TBN developed 5 goals, which were presented to the RTA officials. They are:

1) 150 new security guards hired by October 1, 1981, 75 to be hired by March 1981. Half of those hired should be women. (We especially want women security guards since at present only one guard is a woman. We also have discussed the questionable security provided by male security guards who are potential harassers of the very women they are supposed to protect.)

2) Comprehensive route map outlining the whole RTA system posted within 2 months at all rapid stops and major bus stops and available to the public free. of charge.

3) Assault statistics from 1975 to the present,

published within the next 2 months.

4) Adequate lighting at all rapid stops and immediate vicinities, and all bus stops and shelters to be lit or placed under street lights.

5) To meet again with RTA in 2 months to hear progress reports on the route map, assault sheets, and hiring of security guards. And we want to meet the new security guards at that time.

The response of RTA to these demands was mixed. Ms. Vigil, who reported that sbe also has been working at the Board on similar goals, supported our demands. Mr. Terango and Mr. Szmagala, however, were uncooperative. In regard to our specific demands, we received the following responses:

A route map is being developed and should be ready within six months. This will assist women who may find themselves stranded in unknown areas of the city, without transportation, to find their way on RTA.

Statistics, they stated, are a matter of public record. Aggregate statistics of assaults on RTA are available to anyone who may wish them, through Chief Coleman's office. Although TBN could not get any statistics before the meeting, we will follow up on Mr. Terango's confident assurances.

RTA claims to be lighting rapid and bus stops as a part of their current station improvement prograni and states that within four years, the problems with lighting will be corrected. However, Ms. Vigil asserted that the lighting proposed was not sufficient, as she knew from having ridden the lines herself. Only after the executives get out of their offices and actually look at the stops will they realize that their plans are totally inadequate. We still have much work on this demand, and will be following up in the next meeting. How many women will be raped and attacked in the next four years because of poorly lighted stops?

Mr. Terango refused to recommend any increase in the number of security guards on RTA. Our goal of 150 new guards was based upon their own report of needed security, yet they have no plans to increase the security budget or staff.

Mr. Terango was asked to write a letter to the Board of Trustees supporting our goals. He refused. He also refused to write a letter stating that he would (continued on page 12)

Daytime Danger at RTA

One day a few months ago, at about 10:30 in the morning, I was walking through the University Circle rapid station to wait for a bus. I thought mistakenly that it was a relatively safe time to be there alone. As I was coming out of the station, I saw two young men talking. I held my purse tightly at my side and looked straight ahead, away from them. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one walk away and the other walk into the rapid station toward me. No one else was in sight. As this young man passed me (I can guess he was about 19 or 20), he reached across me and grabbed my breasts. As he dragged his hand over me, I instinctively scratched it as hard as I could and tried to push his hand away. He continued walking as if he had just picked a flower along a country road, and nonchalantly climbed the stairs to the platform.

I was so shocked by this disgusting intrusion I couldn't speak. But even if I could have, what should I have said? Should I have called him names? Would that have compensated for the assault I had just suffered? Certainly not. Would it have prevented him from doing the same thing or worse to someone else? Hardly. Should I have called the police? Should I have tried to apprehend him? The point I'm trying to make is this: there was nothing I could have done. I knew that if a security guard had been there, I would not have been put through such a gross violation of personal rights. The attacker would not have dared help himself to my body. Or, if he had, he would

have been caught immediately and prosecuted. But as it happened, the offense went unpunished and the assailant is free to assault, molest, or even rape. No, there was nothing I could have done at that time. But now, together with all these women, I am doing something. I am fighting back.

Anger overcame my fear that day-anger at men like my assailant and anger at the proprietors of such breeding grounds for crime, RTA. Don't they know how dangerous their desolate rapid stops are? Don't they know that robbers, muggers and rapists have a field day in such desolation? Don't they realize that they should take steps to stop this insult to the women of Cleveland? I knew the pathetic answer to all these questions. Yes, RTA is well aware of all these things, and RTA does not care.

I'm considered one of the lucky ones. Yes, there are some who think I should be thankful that my assailant did not force himself on me any further. I wonder if Mr. Terango [Director of Transportation, RTA} would consider his wife or daughter "lucky" if she had been in my place. If the female relative of any RTA executive had experienced humiliation such as mine, what changes in security would RTA make?

The day I was assaulted, I wanted no one, stranger or friend, to touch me in any way. I completed my errands and, rather than go near a bus or rapid, I walked home, defeated but safe.