Young Women’s Perception of Safety in Public Buses: A Study of Two Indian Cities (Ahmedabad and Bangalore)

Abstract

Young women’s perception of safety can influence their mode choice. This study sets out to understand and quantify the factors that influence young women’s perception of safety while commuting in public buses in Bangalore and Ahmedabad in India. To investigate the research question, surveys were done using a structured questionnaire comprising questions about respondents’ socio-demographic information, perceptions of safety (at the bus stop, inside the bus and while boarding and alighting), bus usage, and other miscellaneous aspects. A total of 192 and 422 valid responses from Ahmedabad and Bangalore respectively, were used for the investigation. Factor analysis reveals that both cities have safety at bus stop, anxiety while travelling in bus and bus stop facilities as common underlying safety-influential factors, except trust (which is extracted for Ahmedabad). The study also attempts to explore the relationship between young women’s perception of safety and extracted factors after controlling for socio-demographics attributes of the respondents. The empirical models reveal that in Ahmedabad, respondents with higher educational qualification are more likely to perceive themselves safer while travelling in buses than those with lower educational qualification. In Bangalore, it was found that respondents who perceive bus stops to be safe are more likely to perceive themselves safer while commuting in bus than those who feel unsafe at bus stops. These results imply that travel experience and the condition of physical infrastructures can influence the overall safety perception of women in the study cities.