Safe environment for female bus users in urban areas

Abstract

Public bus service should be safe for all people anytime and anywhere. Previous studies have indicated that females who commute to work using stage bus services tend to feel unsafe and they are dissatisfied with the current travelling environment. Hence, it is important to see whether this feeling of being unsafe among female bus users is dependent on various attributes such as bus service, infrastructure and social characteristics. In this study, a self-administered survey underpinning the methodology was used and the sample were female stage bus users at major bus stops in residential areas in Kuala Lumpur. Data collected were analyzed using partial correlation and multiple regression analysis. Results of frequency analysis indicated that 80% of the respondents had the highest dissatisfaction towards the bus service attribute concerning ‘punctuality of the bus’. For transport infrastructure, the highest dissatisfaction was recorded for the attribute, ‘using the current infrastructure during night time’ (84.3%). The transport infrastructure with the lowest mean was ‘bus stop lighting during night time’ with only 1.43 from the scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). Further analysis on the social environment found that 65.3% of the respondents was worried about the crime committed by unemployed individuals in their residential area with a mean score of 3.6 from a scale of 1 (not worried at all) to 5 (very worried). Findings from partial correlation analysis indicated that three variables, namely bus service, transport infrastructure and social environment had significant effect on the level of fear as indicated by the female bus users. All these variables had a negative relationship with the dependent variable. In addition, these variables were found to be significant at 95% confidence level. The findings of the study have shown that the level of fear was dependent on the three variables, namely bus service, infrastructure and social environment.