Report

Public transportation in the city – Do people avoid travelling because they feel unsafe?

Reseach area: Society and transport
Year: 2003
VTI-code: M941
Price: 100 kr

 
VTI Publication M941 (39 pages, 191 kB. Swedish text with English summary)

A questionnaire was constructed in order to study perceived attractiveness, feelings of unsafety and different types of perceived risks connected to six different transport modes (car, city bus, tram, regional bus, commuter train and subway). The questionnaire was filled out by 59 persons, 32 women and 27 men, in ages from 19 to 67 in central Stockholm.

The participants were to state what they thought about travelling with the transport modes along with their general opinion about these modes of transportation. Also, the participants were to judge the accident risk, the risk of being bothered, threatened or attacked by fellow passengers in connection with travels. The participants were to state how often they worried about being involved in a traffic accident, being bothered, threatened or attacked while travelling with the transport modes. The participants were to judge to what extent they had felt unsafe while travelling with the different transport modes and to what extent they had avoided travelling because they thought they would feel unsafe. They were also to judge to what extent different circumstances (such as day of the week and bad lighting) contributed to their feelings of unsafety while walking to or waiting at bus stops etc. and while travelling with different public transport modes. Also they were to state their age, gender, education and usage of transport modes. The participants were further given the option to state if there are certain areas where they avoid travelling with the public modes of transportation. The participants should even state which transport modes and during which circumstances they avoid travelling.

The participants stated that they liked it better to travel with car than with commuter train and subway, although there were no differences between car and the different public transport modes concerning the general opinion that they had about these modes of transportation. However, the participants stated that they had a more positive attitude towards tram than towards regional bus and commuter train. The results show that the respondents worry more often and rate the risk of being involved in traffic accidents with car as greater than with the public transport modes. The results also show that the respondents worry more often and rate the risk of being bothered, threatened or attacked as greater when travelling with the public modes of transportation than with car. In sum, these results suggest that perceived risk and worry of being bothered, threatened or attacked when travelling with any given mode of transportation might have a larger impact on perceived attractiveness of that transport mode than do perceived risk and worry of being involved in traffic accidents with that same mode of transportation.

The participants stated that they had felt unsafe more often when travelling with commuter train and subway than when travelling with the remaining modes of transportation.
Women stated that they worry more often and rate the risk of being threatened as greater with city bus than the men did. The women also stated that they worry more often of being bothered, threatened or attacked when travelling with tram than the men do, and that they more often felt unsafe when travelling with these modes of transportation.
Finally the results show that different circumstances (particularity walking through a pedestrian tunnel, the bus stop etc. being remotely situated or situated next to a park/forest) were considered to contribute to feelings of unsafely when walking to and waiting at the bus stop etc. Also, when travelling with the different public transport modes the participants stated that they felt unsafe if drivers/personnel do not supervise their vehicle, if it’s a Friday or Saturday evening or if they are travelling alone. Women stated to a higher extent than men that different circumstances contribute to feelings of unsafely when walking to and waiting at the bus stop etc. as well as when travelling with different public transport modes.

Author(s)

Alm, Charlotte
Lindberg, Erik

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