Examining Perceptions of Public Transport Safety for Young Women in Nairobi, Kenya

Women public transport users in developing countries encounter similar challenges with personal safety as those is more developed counties. Women from low and middle-income households are often captive users of poor transport service. However, less is known about the nature of these safety perceptions and how they relate to other demographic variables, traveler attitudes, and how travelers may be adapting their travel behavior to perceptions of safety. This study presents the findings from a survey of university students in Nairobi, Kenya, emphasizing gender distinctions. The authors further estimate a series of ordinal logit models on the demographic and attitudinal effects on public transport safety perceptions and how they differ by gender. Consistent with the literature, the authors find that women travelers have a much higher odds of perceiving waiting times at public transport stations as unsafe, relative to male travelers. Further the authors find that a common adaptation to feeling unsafe is to “pretend confidence” while waiting at stations. Women who “pretend confidence” have a much higher odds of perceiving public transport as safer at nighttime. This finding raises a critical research need to study behavioral adaptations to perceptions of personal safety, how they differ by gender, and how these behaviors affect accessibility for female and male public transport riders.

• Record URL:
  https://annualmeeting.mytrb.org/OnlineProgram/Details/15885
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AME20 Standing Committee on Women and Gender in Transportation.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Bills, Tierra
  • Chowdhury, Subeh
  • 0000-0002-9619-705X
  • Olukuru, John
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2021-1-5 to 2021-1-29
• Date: 2021

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 13p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Females; Mode choice; Public transit; Safety; Travel behavior; Young adults
• Geographic Terms: Nairobi (Kenya)
• Subject Areas: Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01763853
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: TRBAM-21-00977
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 4 2021 10:57AM