As a woman, Shawna Lewkowitz isn't surprised her two 15- and 16-year-old daughters regularly face harassment on board the bus.

"Unfortunately, it's become so normalized for them," she said. "Although it affects them, it just becomes something that they also expect."

The most recent incident on a London Transit Commission (LTC) bus involved a man who suggested her 15-year-old daughter Meredith should be a stripper.

It's just one of the many incidents Lewkowitz's daughters have had to deal with while taking transit in the city, including inappropriate comments and men pressing up too close to them.

Meredith and Ainsley Lewkowitz share their experiences with harassment on London's LTC buses. Their mother Shawna urges for a faster, easier way to report instances of harassment on the public transit system. 1:07

For 16-year-old Ainsley, she remembers an incident last year when she was sitting by herself on a bus heading home.

She had placed her bag in the seat next to her, but an older man who had just gotten on the bus picked up her bag and dropped it on her lap so he could sit next to her.

"He started asking me a lot of questions like asking if I was dating someone, if I wanted to go back to his place to hang out," she said.

"I felt really uncomfortable and he was blocking me from leaving my seat with his legs."

Ainsley ended up calling one of her friends as a way to distance herself from the man for the remainder of the bus ride.

"As soon as he noticed I was talking to someone else, he got off the bus and left me alone," she said.

LTC complaints

The LTC does track complaints involving harassment against its passengers under "passenger behaviour."

In 2019, the transit agency received 71 reports that were categorized under "passenger behaviour," down slightly from 74 in the previous year.

It's unclear how many of those reports involved harassment directed at another passenger or at an LTC employee. Passengers who report bus harassment to police would not be counted in the category.

All complaints that are considered serious in nature are investigated and action taken appropriately, according to the LTC.

In addition, a spokesperson for LTC said it has a Travel Safe program to help passengers get to their destinations safely.

The program includes courtesy stops where passengers can request to be dropped off during early morning and late evening hours, and transit drivers can also notify London police through dispatch if the situation is urgent.

'We just have so much further to go'

On Friday, Lewkowitz took to Twitter to share what her daughters were facing while taking the bus.

Even though I know regular harassment that comes with being a woman/girl, it is particularly jarring to hear from my teenager daughters how they are regularly sexually harassed on the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LTC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LTC</a>.Photos being taken, men sitting too close/touching, telling them they should be "strippers" —@ShawnaLewk

In a tweet, she wrote about how it was "particularly jarring" to hear that her daughters "are regularly sexually harassed on the LTC."

When asked why she decided to tweet about her daughters' experiences, she said it was "to highlight how common it is ... and also to bring awareness that we just have so much further to go in terms of making public spaces safer for young girls and women."

Despite this, Lewkowitz said other bus passengers have intervened while her daughters were being harassed.

"They've had situations where somebody sat down beside them and talked to them as a distraction from what was happening," she said.

Lewkowitz wants the city and LTC to consider investing in ways to further protect the safety of young girls and women in public spaces.

She also hopes people talk "to the boys and men in our lives about their behaviour and why this is so common."