
Why Women-Only Transit Options Have Caught On (2012) - EGreg
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/02/why-women-only-transit-options-have-caught/1171/
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biff
_But there are worries the harsher penalties may have actually led some women
to falsely accuse men of groping in the hope of a cash settlement._

 _It looks like until Japanese men and women – but especially men – learn to
behave themselves on trains in mixed company, completely gender-segregated
cars might sadly be the safest way to ride._

I leafed through a book once (and fully intend to actually buy and read though
the thing soon) called the "No Asshole Rule". [1] My takeaway was that there
are people who on the surface are extraordinarily productive but who are so
destructive in interpersonal relations as to contribute negative value overall
to a business.

Reading this article makes me wonder if, on a more general level, anybody's
tried to quantify the amount assholes cost society in general. And how much of
that cost is truly wasted vs. that which creates industry of benefit to all of
us. I know effort's gone into using our understanding of psychology to steer
people into more responsible social behaviors, but I wonder if all things
considered we somehow end up in a better place because assholes are constantly
testing limits and we come up with social accommodations for that behavior.

1: [http://www.amazon.com/The-Asshole-Rule-Civilized-
Workplace/d...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Asshole-Rule-Civilized-
Workplace/dp/0446698202)

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philwelch
The US actually ran a massive social experiment like this in the 80's and
90's, where repeat criminal offenders eventually got life imprisonment if they
committed enough crimes. Now we have the world's largest prison population.

(I'm being a little wry.)

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lettergram
I'm just going to come out and say I think 104 incidents of the 100,000 -
1,000,000+ riding the trains is pretty low...

Further, I know multiple women (or I guess men) who would over react if they
were accidentally touched and in a bad mood, tired, hungry, etc. With Japan's
very large population in a relatively small place I can imagine this happening
often. I am sure that groping happens, but it seems as though this is at least
as much hype as it is facts.

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whyenot
104 _reported_ incidents on a single subway line. The number of unreported
incidents is likely much higher.

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sfall
Unfortunately there is no way to determine if the actual is 110 or 1100 so you
can only base off reported incidents

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thaumasiotes
This isn't true at all. For example, here in the US we keep statistics on
reported crimes, but we also have the National Crime Victimization Survey.

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cclogg
Random unrelated hilarious moment: When I finished reading, I looked at the
other articles linked below, and one of the images used was randomly from my
flickr page (of my gf) hahaha. Such a weird moment to see that, considering
the image only has 16 views. But I do set all my photos for complete open use.

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jsonne
Serious question. I've traveled rather extensively and this seems to be a much
more serious problem outside the US as opposed to within the US. Does anyone
have any insight into this? Is this purely anecdotal on my part?

~~~
Myrmornis
When you say outside the US, do you definitely not mean "outside affluent
western society"? Or do you find it more common in London, Vienna, Sydney,
etc?

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jsonne
Southern Europe (Italy and Spain specifically) it seems to be more of an issue
than London or say Hamburg.

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EGreg
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women-
only_passenger_car](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women-only_passenger_car)

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joshbaptiste
hmm.. article is almost two years old, so I wonder what the current situation
is as I've never heard of segregation of the sexes in Japan.

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graeme
The first sentence notes that women only-trains have existed in Japan for 100
years.

I find Hacker News has a recency bias. This is appropriate with tech stories,
but often inapplicable in other areas where norms shift much more slowly. A
two year old article can be quite reliable.

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EGreg
Why was this title renamed? It used to say "train cars where men are not
allowed". What was wrong with that title?

