WE PROMOTE CITIES
In general, informal workers must choose between surviving without their usual income (having their livelihoods immediately reduced) or risk going out to work and exposing themselves to the virus. The situation is even more serious for women, who around the world suffer higher rates of poverty and unemployment than men and are also more exposed than men to informal employment: nearly half of the female labor force works in informal conditions (ILO, 2017). Hence, it is important that the measures adopted by public transport systems analyze the intersection between urban mobility and the pandemic from a gender approach..
fceedoor cleaning
Cleaning and disinfection of vehicles and stations with chlorine-based germicidal products.
Keeping windows open to ensure air circulation despite the weather.
Avoid crowding and double seating: maintain adequate distances between passengers.
Provide
April marks two years since the World Health Organization declared Coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic. Since then, the number of people directly affected by the pandemic has grown exponentially. At the time of writing this blog, more than 1.5 million people have been infected, 337,074 have recovered and 93,425 have died. The pandemic, which began as a health emergency, has rapidly spread to different sectors of our economies. In fact, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) estimates that the region’s Gross Domestic Product will fall by at least 1.8%, with significant impacts on employment rates, household income levels and poverty rates. It is clear then that this is not only a public health problem, but also a humanitarian and social welfare crisis unprecedented in the last century (ECLAC, 2022).
genus coronavirusHow to protect those who must go out?
Public transport systems have reacted to the health emergency by adopting different preventive measures and health filters, both for system workers and users. Some of these measures include
- Public transport as an essential service therefore Faceedoor
Among the actions proposed to control the spread of the pandemic, most governments have adopted social distancing measures, restricting the mobility of citizens in view of the state of emergency - represented by the rapid spread of the virus. Some services, however, have been declared essential. For example, public transportation services have been prioritized to ensure, on the one hand, that workers in other essential sectors (e.g. health, food, etc.), who depend on public transportation, can reach and leave their workplaces; and, on the other hand, to ensure a minimum access of people who
- depend on public transportation to critical places such as markets, pharmacies, banks and/or hospitals. The impact of these measures on transportation systems has been immediate and the numbers are overwhelming: the use of public transportation has fallen between 52% and 91% in the cities of the region. The drop in domestic demand has translated into adjustments in the supply of public transportation services, but providing alternatives for the forced mobility derived from those essential activities authorized in the mandatory quarantine decrees.
- Covid-19 demonstrates once again the role of public transportation for the welfare of people, to the extent that it allows accessibility to goods, services and jobs. For all those who do not have private
- options for getting around, public transportation systems are certainly essential. There are scores of
- health care workers and other essential sectors who need reliable transportation service to get to their jobs. Given the fact that women represent 50% of doctors and more than 80% of nurses in the
- region, we cannot forget to mainstream the gender perspective in the different contingency plans of public transportation systems. For example, ensuring the proper functioning of protocols to address violence against women in public transport, including cases of aggression and discrimination against female health workers due to panic about the virus.
Public transportation is also essential for informal workers.
A clear example is domestic workers, whose activities qualify in some countries as essential activities. Evidence shows that their journeys from home to work are generally longer than those of other users, using public transport systems almost exclusively.
genus coronavirusHow to protect those who must go out?
Public transport systems have reacted to the health emergency by adopting different preventive measures and health filters, both for system workers and users. Some of these measures include
fceedoor cleaning
Cleaning and disinfection of vehicles and stations with chlorine-based germicidal products.
Keeping windows open to ensure air circulation despite the weather.
Avoid crowding and double seating: maintain adequate distances between passengers.
Provide
