Modelling personal safety perceptions at bus stop: employing hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation approach

Vehicle-pedestrian interactions occurring within a limited space are quite common at bus stops, making it essential to comprehend passengers' perception of safety near bus stops. Since the sense of perceived safety is subjective, developing a standardized tool to measure travellers' perception of safety, especially of bus users, is complex. The first part of this study aims to identify the indicators for measuring the perceived safety at bus stops, and the second part focuses on modelling the overall perceived safety of users’ at bus stops using structural equation modelling. The research examined the safety factors according to 14 indicators which were further reduced to five latent constructs using exploratory factor analysis. Perceived safety is taken as a second-order latent construct, and the second-order confirmatory factor analysis found that safety derived from five latent variables, namely bus stop facility, bus stop location, bus operator behaviour, other users' behaviour, and pedestrian facility, are potential indicators of overall perceived safety at the bus stop. The results recommend that providing night light facilities, adopting measures to avoid improper stopping of buses and left-side overtaking, avoiding bus stops on curves and junctions, and ensuring better sidewalk facilities could improve perceived safety. Structural equation modelling revealed that safety perceptions are negatively influenced by previous accident victimization and witnessing, age, educational qualification and total household vehicles. The results conclude that female respondents perceive less safety than males, and no effects can be attributed to the frequency of travel and trip length. The research findings will be helpful for the planning agencies to prioritize measures to improve travellers' feeling of safety.