📖 Course: Qualitative Research through Interviewing →Back to the Collection
📚 Programme: Liberal Arts and Sciences, Erasmus University College
Abstract
This research will address the issue of women’s perception of safety on public transportation in Rotterdam, as this has not been researched sufficiently by both qualitative and quantitative studies. Women are considered to be the most vulnerable whilst taking public transportation, thereby a high-risk demographic. The purpose of this research is to investigate why certain infrastructure impacts perceptions of safety and identify ways of increasing perceptions of safety. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with women between the ages of 18-25, to decipher what impacts personal perceptions of safety. Furthermore, interviewees were asked to give their recommendations on what could be improved in infrastructure to increase perceptions of safety. The results indicated that confined spaces, presence of other passengers and staff, and the presentation of safety all impacted perception of safety. The findings of this report will be used to develop a policy paper to suggest improvements to the RET.
Introduction
Globally, public transport is a common, and popular, method of travel. In 2015, 243 billion public transport journeys were made in 39 countries around the world. This represents an 18% increase compared to 2000 (UITP, 2017). In Europe alone, 89.5 billion passengers made use of trams in 2018 (Burgueño Salas, 2021). However, due to COVID-19 the industry saw a decrease in passengers. This hit its lowest peak in April 2020, where a 76% decrease of passenger activity was recorded (Lozzi et Al., 2020). In the Netherlands, the Rotterdam Elektrische Tram (RET) company, responsible for local transportation within Rotterdam, responded to this decrease by cutting costs and subsequently decreasing the “Sociale veiligheid” budget by 25% (Mulders, 2021).
The “Sociale Veiligheid” directly translates from Dutch to social safety/security and incorporates costs for ensuring that passengers and RET employees feel safe on their public transport. The budget has, over the years, gone into supplying transport invigilators, service employees, conductors, and camera surveillance (RET, 2016).
The industry is promptly expected to recover, however there are many issues that must be addressed before this boom of passengers occurs. Many consumers of the RET services are concerned with their safety whilst taking public transportation. Potential safety hazards associated with public transport include injury related to the infrastructure and violent crime. In turn, this leads to decreased perceptions of personal safety (Friman et al., 2020, p.1).
In the surrounding debate of this topic, the relationship between public transport and crime has been frequently analysed. It has been shown, for instance, how the perception of crime risk is not directly related to crime rates (Newton, 2014, p. 4). Furthermore, the "broken window hypothesis" outlines that women feel as if their safety is lowered in areas where there are visible signs of crime, such as broken windows. This is because this creates an environment which promotes and reinforces crime and disorder (Wilson & Kelling, 1982). Thereby, creating a link between presentation of space and perceptions of safety indicates the omnipresence of infrastructure and its conscious and unconscious effects its presentation can have on us.
Moreover, other studies have shown that women are more likely to feel less safe: only 43% of women have declared themselves to be public transport users with no fears for their personal security (TRB, 2005, p. 110). For instance, on the metro women are 10% more likely than men to feel unsafe during their commute (Lewis, 2020).
Furthermore, in many medium and large cities, public transport is a key element of sustainable transport, especially for lower income families. These families may have two working partners but only one method of personal transportation, such as a car or a scooter. It is therefore of the utmost importance that public transport can provide safe journeys. Otherwise, women, who already represent an underutilised sector of the labour market, will be further discouraged in pursuing job opportunities simply because the mode of transport is unsafe.
Our research question is thus best formulated as “How does the corresponding infrastructure of the Rotterdam public transport system influence women’s perception of safety?”. Certain terms in this question could be classified as umbrella terms. Subsequently, these terms lack the subtlety and distinctions required for effective research and they are thus nuanced below.
It is of fundamental importance to understand that the term safety in this instance refers to the condition of being unlikely or protected from physical, psychological, or material harm. When our research question talks about the perception of safety, we are thus referring to the instance where our target group perceives the situation they are in to be unlikely or impossible to be harmed in. A subtlety here is that this does not have to correspond to the actual reality of the journey as it is subjective which consequently lends itself to the qualitative nature of this research. Additionally, in our interviews we asked our participants to provide their own definition of safety which led to a twofold definition; our participants distinguished between safety as a feeling and safety as a situation, the former relating to the participant’s perception and the latter relating to our aforementioned definition of safety.
By infrastructure we are referring to the physical presentation of space but also security measures in place such as cameras, related software, and security personnel. The presentation of space of any station, stop or carriage of metro, tram or train refers to the quality and maintenance.
With our research, we therefore aim to further understand how surrounding infrastructure on public transportation influences the perception of safety and thereby add to awareness and shape policy regarding what can be done to ensure increased perception of safety, specifically in the high-risk demographic group of women.
Literature Review
Both qualitative and quantitative research on this topic has been scarce in providing accurate data linking women’s safety and public transport. In fact, there is a lack of common, standardised, measurements of crime amongst the agencies managing various systems of public transport (Newton, 2014, p. 6). This often leads to sexual harassment being grouped under the umbrella term of ‘violence’, leading to wrong conclusions and interpretations about women their safety. Moreover, in combination with victims normalising and internalising such episodes of sexual harassment alongside lack of awareness on which means to use to inform the competent authorities, sexual harassment is often unreported (Newton, 2014, p. 6). This has consequently led to further inconsistencies in the academic discourse while providing further justification of a qualitative approach.
Nonetheless, qualitative studies which have thus far dominated the qualitative discourse on safety have focussed on all passengers’ needs; thus, ignoring the specific needs of demographic groups at higher risk. Miranda Carter, Head of Consultation, Community and Stakeholder engagement at the UK Department for Transport, has labelled it crucial for operators to “tailor crime reduction programs and policies to the needs and experiences of different demographic groups with respect both actual crime and fear of crime” (2005, pp.100). Carter thus articulates two previously identified issues, the need for a distinction, but also a recognition, for the difference between the occurrence of crime and the perception of safety as well as the need to consider the needs of more than just one archetypical passenger.
This is not to say that the topic of women and public transport has not been studied. Yet, these papers have taken, not less valuable, but different approaches. For example, the process of the construction of ‘gender’ through the involvement of how spaces shape society and gender relations (Schmucki, 2002) has led to fascinating insights. However, it does not touch upon how surrounding infrastructure influences a woman’s perception of safety but assumes a historically established relationship instead of a dynamic and subjective one. Other studies such as one produced by Gekoski, et al., have instead focussed on the prevalence and nature of sexual harassment and assault on public transport through quantitative methods (2017). The subtle, yet crucial, difference here is that such papers have investigated the reality of a situation instead of the perception or interpretation of one. As the latter is subjective, it lends itself to the qualitative nature of this research. This is a repeating theme in the existing literature. Lastly, the case of women’s transport disadvantages is well established in the existing literature and it has been noted that women devote greater concern to their personal security on transport (Hamilton et al., 1991). However, the existing literature does not take a pragmatic stance towards the topic and instead calls for policy makers to think of solutions. All these examples aim to highlight the urgent need for considering the perception of women and their safety and available solutions to improve this.
Another exception to considering public transport passengers as archetypal has been the consideration of accessibility measures on public transport in Montreal. Manaugh and El-Geneidy have considered infrastructure through the lens of disadvantaged populations in terms of levels of job access, immigration status and education levels (2012). A truly critical analysis which had thus far been missing from the existing literature. Furthermore, they make the important observation that public transport providers often focus on attracting new riders as this holds more revenue-generating potential than improving service for current users (Manaugh & El-Geneidy). This could indicate a potential unwillingness of public transport providers to improve conditions which currently don’t accommodate passengers falling outside of the archetype. However, this stems from ignorance on the side of the providers since if the perceived quality and safety of public transport were to increase, then so would its customer base.
Additionally, a quantitative paper conducted in 2020 determined that the criteria of public transport infrastructure which influences passenger satisfaction most are the infrastructure elements, such as the priority of public transport in the street (Ušpalytė-Vitkūnienė et al.). However, other important factors which were identified were lighting and the cleanness of stops and vehicles. Particularly lighting, but also cleanness as previously illustrated by the “broken window hypothesis”, seem to indicate that factors influencing passenger satisfaction influence passenger’s perception of safety in parallel. However, for this data, this paper used surveys to interview 440 respondents. The demographic of these respondents is unknown, but it could be safe to assume that it is not a study focussed on addressing the specific needs of women. These results could thus look vastly different if this focus had been present.
Thus, the academic discourse has touched upon the relationship between passenger journeys and infrastructure and provided valuable contributions. Regardless, with the exception of some of the aforementioned papers, the literature assumes an archetypical passenger. It is no longer acceptable to assume that gender differences don’t impact one’s perception of safety on public transport. Therefore, this paper seeks to discover what such differences in one’s perception of safety entail and how to find solutions which accommodate these differences.
Methodology
The methodology of this research began with purposive sampling (Boeije, 2014) by which 10 suitable participants were selected for the study. The sampling strategy drew from existing social theory that was translated into the sample through a homogenous approach. Participants were selected based on key traits, namely gender, age, and residency. Due to the nature of the research question and aim of the interviews, the importance of participants' gender was pre-established. Specifically, the homogenous sample consisted of young women between the ages of 18 to 25 living in Rotterdam. Furthermore, the aim of the homogenous sampling was to understand the feelings and opinions of these women in depth. The significance of residency was highlighted when narrowing the geographic approach of the research specifically to Rotterdam, to allow for comparative analysis between the respondents, thus eliminating potential variables. Finally, the distinction in age was derived from ethical concerns surrounding the interviewing of respondents under the age of 18 up until 25, being described as primary victims of sexual assault and harassment (Langefors et al., 2020).
In order to gain access to suitable respondents, an initial place of recruitment with access to women living in Rotterdam was desired. The workplaces of the respective researchers in this study became the sources of the first few respondents. Specifically, workplaces were selected as an effective initial source of respondents based on the reality that the researchers’ pre-established relationships with these respondents would aid the interview when researching a sensitive topic. Moreover, a pre-established relationship was expected to introduce comfort into the interviewing process, putting the respondent at ease, inspiring them to share valuable insights into the topic that participants would potentially hide. In addition, the method of snowball sampling was used to recruit additional participants. Snowball sampling constitutes asking participants to share contact information of anyone in the desired demographic they might know who would be interested in partaking in research. This method was valuable in further reaching and recruiting women comfortable with sharing experiences and opinions.
As researchers it is important to establish and maintain a basic concept of qualitative research; trust (Boeije, 2014). Trust can be very important and valuable throughout qualitative research through laying the foundation on which participants will feel comfortable enough to open up and share personal experiences or opinions. However, it is also important as the researcher to be aware of the danger behind creating a pleasurable atmosphere among participants, and emphasising the fact that respondents can remain silent whenever desired.
It is also the responsibility of the researcher to inform the participants of their role in the research. In the context of this research it is important that the women are aware of how their experiences and feelings give valuable insights into issues surrounding public transportation in Rotterdam. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the researcher to gather the information given by the respondents in a way to fill the gaps found in the literature and possibly create solutions to current public transportation in order to increase safety for women.
The data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews whereby researchers would not be limited to questions of the interview guide. The semi-structured nature of the interviews allowed interviews to unfold in a conversational manner, allowing participants to explore issues they felt were important. It allowed the interviews to focus on an explanatory and causal approach, allowing for insights to the interviewees experiences and to gain an impression of their perception of safety on the RET network.
Additionally semi-structured interviews created a less formal environment, important in consideration of the sensitivity surrounding the topic. Despite being semi-structured, there were questions in the interview guide that were consistent with all interviews. One of the first questions would always be related to the perception of safety, specifically how would you [the interviewee] define ‘safety’?. This was an important introductory question as safety can be a subjective topic whose definition varies among individuals. Additionally, it was important as researchers to define how the interviewee viewed their safety to fully understand the answers to future questions as well as what was meant when participants described feeling ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’. Secondly, a question regarding which mode of transport participants felt most safe was included to learn about differences regarding safety in relation to various modes of public transport. Furthermore, this was one of the leading questions by which interviewees began to make connections as to why they felt more or less safe on certain transportation. Finally, since the nature of the research revolved around infrastructure, questions such as; What are examples of physical infrastructure present on some journeys that actively make you feel safer? were included.
Our first step in creating the codes for our research was analysis of the data collected during the first round of interviews.
We first created categories by following the Gioia et al. (2013) framework. With the use of 1st-order analysis, we formulated categories such as physical presence and surveillance. This was based on relevant terms used by interviewees, allowing us to create categories centred on the informants’ experiences. We then abstracted these personal experiences registered in the interviews by a theoretical approach; the 2nd-order analysis described by Gioia et al (2013). The abstraction of the categories that were specifically linked to the participants made it possible for us to look for emerging themes amongst the analysed data that could help to describe and explain the phenomena we observed.
Beginning the open coding analytic process, we started by formulating themes linked with the categories found in the first part of the data analysis. Through this we were able to derive more precise concepts, and finally, we built codes able to help us analyse and better understand the object of our research. By using an in vivo coding approach, we individualised the terms used by participants in interviews and used them to create non-hierarchical codes. Besides in vivo coding, we also made use of interpretative coding to code those categories of data directly linked to events regarding certain situations described by the participants; for example, how the presence of a conductor on public transports made them feel.
Through the use of axial codes, we verified the conclusion drawn by Gioia et al. framework and open coding. We checked if our codes were uniform all over our analysis and merged together those categories which were closely related to one another to distil both categories and codes. We further utilised axial coding to distinguish between codes and subcodes in our research.
We chose labels closely connected to the experience of our interviewees as they better represent the information, we need to answer our research question. For instance, to describe and code the perception of safety by women on public transportation we chose the terms used by the women who participated in our study. An example is the code ‘more people is always better’, a term that a participant used during one of the interviews. Moreover, the use of informational coding helps us to get a general and universal overview on perception safety in specific situations that were reflected by common categories amongst the interviews.
Results
Based on our data structure we were able to organise our codes under four main categories connected with the perception of safety in women. These are Presentation of Space, Physical Presence, Surveillance, and Infrastructure.
From our research, the importance of physical presence was emphasised providing insights on its specific requirements to increase perceptual safety amongst women. In one of the first interviews the participants stated how ‘a lot of people [is] always better’. However, further interviews suggested that certain kinds of people decreased feelings of safety. A main division based on gender was found as one participant explained to us: ‘ if I were on public transport, and there would be, like, a group of men, I would maybe feel more threatened or more scared than if it were a group of women.’. The analysis provided by this quote was shared by other participants as well, alongside the idea that women are raised ‘with the idea that men are the threat’, suggesting a connection between upbringing and perception of safety in women. Moreover, a preference of sharing public transport with other women was linked with a feeling of solidarity between same-gender individuals as ‘if you're in a metro, and there's a woman, that just always makes you feel [...] safer.’. Finally, the presence of other people was found to be unwanted and threatening if other passengers were under the influence of drugs and alcohol: ‘ Especially if I'm alone. And there's people around me [under the influence of drugs], then I'm a little bit edgy’.
Another category we came to define, connected with Physical Presence, is the Presentation of Space. Our findings are in agreement with the broken window hypothesis (Wilson & Kelling, 1982). Many participants reported how ‘By making it look like a safe space it feels like a safe space’ and how in certain instances ‘if the stations and the buses and trams[...] are kept more clean, then perhaps people are more reluctant to be[...] offensive in their behaviour’ linking the maintenance of public space with the likelihood of negative events to take place.
The findings related to these two categories were found to be connected with surveillance. In the first place, physical presence of public transportation staff was found to be correlated with increased perception of safety. In fact, a participant reported the following while elaborating on safety of public transportation, ‘trams generally seem a bit more safe than metros because it feels like there's potentially more direct contact with a conductor’. Moreover, the physical presence of surveillance systems was reported as positively correlated with perceptional safety. Regarding CCTV cameras systems one of the interviewees said that ‘knowing that things are being recorded [...] it's also very comforting.’. However, other participants also shared how security systems are perceived as more useful in the aftermath of negative events rather than in the moment, highlighting the need for such systems to improve safety in general. More generally, surveillance either in the form of physical presence or presentation of space as surveilled was linked with increased perceptual safety amongst women.
Infrastructure was deemed as safer if stations were well maintained, if there was presence of personnel, and security services. Moreover, the perception of space was found to be of relevance. In fact, the participants, especially by comparing metros and trams, revealed how they felt ‘more trapped in the metro stations, [...] because it is such an enclosed space’, leading to lower perception of safety and feeling of being trapped or unable to escape.
The data structure created, see appendix, provides further insight on additional elements that impact the perception of safety in women.
Amongst these the more relevant are time of the journey, and familiarity with the journey.
Our findings suggest that the day is a preferred time of travel rather than the night as
‘at night when there's not a lot of people, it's a little bit sketchy’, linking our results with the findings of Ušpalytė-Vitkūnienė et. al, 2020. Moreover, the familiarity with the journey seemed to have a positive influence on feeling safe, a participant reported that ‘I always use certain types of public transport I kind of know that it's safe for me’.
Finally, the results provided a general outline of precautionary measures implemented by the subjects of our research. An approach of desensibilisation and abstraction, ‘I like to have my air pods and just minding my own business’, or a more active approach. The latter was mainly focused on sharing one's whereabouts, ‘I share my life location’, calling someone known to signal possible negative actors about not being alone, ‘call my friend while I'm on the tram’. Moreover, physical presence of known people, ‘I would, like, ask a good guy friend to come with me’, as well as supporting each other by ‘finding a way to get back together(home)’, were found to be perceived as useful precautionary measures.
Discussion
As previously formulated through understanding and identification of the research problem, the research question is as follows: “How does the corresponding infrastructure of the Rotterdam public transport system influence women’s perception of safety?”.
The results of the research break down the answer to this question in three main categories which can influence the safety of women on public transportation. These are physical presence, presentation of space and surveillance. Each category, as explained in detail above, interlink to alter the perception of safety both positively and negatively.
The increased perception of safety has been found to be created by the physical presence of others, specifically security personnel present on forms of transportation. Moreover, women felt safer when other women were present in the same carriage as they felt an increased sense of empathy. Additionally, when a station or carriage is presented in a clean and organised manner, it increases the perception of safety. This directly aligns with the “broken window hypothesis” as it gives the impression that the station is well maintained. It further suggests to those travelling that a well-maintained station would have staff presence to keep it in order. Furthermore, when surveillance is present in the form of security cameras with a view of the screen showing what the cameras are seeing, this creates an increase in the perception of safety due to the fact that this brings comfort to women knowing others are able to see what the camera is seeing. This further creates a sense of diffused responsibility and solidarity amongst passengers as well as potentially scaring off potential perpetrators.
Contrastingly, the presence of CCTV cameras is not enough to increase the perceptions of safety when there are no security personnel present. This is due to the recurring idea in which cameras are not able to interfere if anything occurs, it acts more of a deterrent to those who intend on committing a crime. This deterrence can be increased by displaying what the cameras see. Additionally, the presence of any number of men decreased the perception of safety in women. Men were found to be more likely to make the female passengers feel as though their safety is impeded, as previously evidenced in the literature. However, we found that it did depend on the age, race and looks of said man. Finally, the results indicated that confinement can bring discomfort when travelling, as the women are in a closed space where the opportunities for escape are scarce.
The results of the research project generally align with the existing literature, but further builds upon this, with a focus specifically on the perceptions of safety in women. It was found by Friman et al. (2020) that the potential safety hazards associated with public transport include injuries related to infrastructure and violent crime, which in turn leads to decreased perceptions of personal safety. These findings correspond with the broad result of infrastructure heavily affecting women’s perceptions of safety, which, once again, can be evidenced by the “broken window hypothesis”.
Moreover, the quantitative paper conducted in 2020 by Ušpalytė-Vitkūnienė et al. identified the criteria, as previously mentioned, that influences passenger satisfaction to the greatest extent as the elements of infrastructure, such as the priority of public transport in the street. Additionally, they found that the lighting and cleanliness of stops and vehicles likewise influence passenger satisfaction. These findings further align with the interview results, where it was evidenced that the physical presentation of the space, when clean and presented in an organised manner, increased the perceptions and feelings of safety.
Despite the preceding similarities, the results did not demonstrate an affinity with all of the found existing literature. Manaugh and El-Geneidy (2012) considered infrastructure through the lens of disadvantaged populations, in the terms of levels of job access, immigration and education levels. This is in fact a truly critical angle of analysis, which has thus far been missing from the existing literature, however we did not find results that aligned with this. Nevertheless, it would be suitable and invaluable for future research in this field. Similarly, our results were unable to add to Miranda Carter’s (2005, p. 100) literature regarding the emphasis on the cruciality for operators to specifically accommodate crime reduction programs and policies according to the needs and experiences of different demographic groups with respect to both actual crime and the fear of crime, however, it would nonetheless be highly suitable for future research.
This research study conducted understandably possesses flaws which must be discussed. Primarily, it is likely that there was subconscious researcher bias incorporated throughout the study, specifically in regards to confirmation bias. This is evidenced through the questions being asked to the participants entrenched in pre-existing literature, as formulated questions were based on themes found in said literature. By doing this, it is likely that some questions may have unintentionally been leading. Additionally, there were limitations in regard to the duration in which research was able to be conducted, due to the fact that this was a time constrained academic course. With a larger period to conduct research, it is likely the sample size can also be increased as more interviews will be able to be conducted. The limited sample size acts as a flaw, as our sample cannot be representative on a larger, global scale. Lastly, only researching Rotterdam as a geographical location further limits the applicability of the data collected.
Future research can be conducted based on the findings in this study. Firstly, instead of purely researching experiences in Rotterdam as the focal point, it would be beneficial to not only study other cities, but countries as well. This would mitigate certain biases that arise from focusing on one city only, as there may be certain factors that exist in Rotterdam that do not in other geographical locations. Additionally, expanding on the demographic could further add to existing literature. Potential areas of expansion are as follows. This research project did not examine the relationship between the area where the interviewees reside and their perceptions of safety on public transportation. This might be further advanced by considering the background of the interviewees, with their background referring to their cultural, social, and economic background or status. Lastly, removing the age limit and studying women of all ages, specifically those under 18 and over 25 as this was the limit of this research project. Ultimately, it would be most interesting, in our personal opinions, to research women under the age of 18 and over 65, as we believe these women would experience the highest discrepancies in perceptions of safety relative to women between the ages of 18 and 25.
Through the findings which assist in answering the research questions, it would be beneficial for the RET to take into consideration ways in which they are able to improve the infrastructure in order to increase the levels of perceptions of safety in the high-risk demographic group, which are women. The results of the research project indicate that RET could do the following to increase the perceptions of safety. Firstly, increasing the levels or preserving high levels of cleanliness and maintenance of the public transport and surrounding environments would alleviate certain stresses decreasing the perceptions of safety. Secondly, incorporating screens next to the present CCTV cameras would also further ease the aforementioned stress. Furthermore, an increase in the availability of personnel, both safety and otherwise, on the public transport would mitigate certain levels of stress as well. Adding to this, the personnel should most importantly be present during the later, darker hours of the day, instead of the opposite as it currently is. Moreover, to combat the feeling of confinement on metros and trams, perhaps rotating the seats by 90 degrees to form a line instead of being forward facing towards the front of the carriage would be beneficial. This is because the travellers would be able to have a ‘personal path’ to the exit of the carriage instead of having a fellow passenger potentially blocking them and preventing them from freely leaving. Finally, the implementation of posters which emphasise that there are CCTV cameras and the risks of acting in an inappropriate and harmful manner could further ease stress affecting the demographic group’s perception of safety.
Sources
Boeije, H. (2014). Analysis in Qualitative Research. Doing Qualitative Analysis(pp. 93-121). London, UK: SAGE Publications ltd. Burgueño Salas, E. (2021). Tram & metro passenger mileage in EU-28 2000-2018. Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/279572/tram-und-metro-passenger-mileage-in-eu-27/Opens external
Carter, M. (2005). Gender Differences in Experience with and Fear of Crime in Relation to Public Transport. In Research on women's issues in transportation, report of a conference: Technical papers (pp. 100-101). Transportation Research Board.
Friman, M., Lättman, K., & Olsson, L. E. (2020). Public transport quality, safety, and perceived accessibility. Sustainability, 12(9), 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093563Opens external
Gekoski, A., Gray, J. M., Adler, J. R., & Horvath, M. A. (2017). The prevalence and nature of sexual harassment and assault against women and girls on public transport: An international review. Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, 3(1), 3-16. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcrpp-08-2016-0016Opens external
Gioia, D. A., Corley, K. G., & Hamilton, A. L. (2013). ‘Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research notes on the Gioia methodology,’ Organizational Research Methods, 16 (1), 15-31.
Hamilton, K., Jenkins, L., & Gregory, A. (1991). Women and transport: Bus deregulation in West Yorkshire.
Lewis, S. (2020, 28 June). Women more likely than men to feel unsafe on public transit.
Mobility News. https://lab.movinonconnect.com/s/article/Women-More-Likely-Than-Men-to-Feel-Unsafe-on-Public-Transit?language=en_USOpens external
Lozzi, G, Rodrigues, M, Marcucci, E, Teoh, T, Gatta, V, Pacelli, V (2020), Research for TRAN Committee – COVID-19 and urban mobility: impacts and perspectives, European Parliament, Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies, Brussels
Manaugh, K., & El-Geneidy, A. (2012). Who Benefits From New Transportation Infrastructure? Using Accessibility Measures to Evaluate Social Equity in Public Transport Provision. In K. T. Geurs, K. J. Krizek, & A. Reggiani (Eds.), Accessibility analysis and transport planning: Challenges for Europe and North America. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Mulders, A. (2021, 25 May). Cutbacks RET: a quarter fewer conductors from October https://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/bezuiniging-ret-kwart-minder-conducteurs-vanaf oktober~a5b001d7Opens external
Newton, A. (2014). Crime on public transport. Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 709-720. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_301Opens external
RET. (2016, June 16). RET: Noodgedwongen besparingen sociale veiligheid. Hét dynamische openbaarvervoerbedrijf van de regio Rotterdam - RET. https://corporate.ret.nl/nieuws/ret-noodgedwongen-besparingen-sociale-veiligheidOpens external
Schmucki, B. (2002). On the trams. The Journal of Transport History, 23(1), 60-72. https://doi.org/10.7227/tjth.23.1.7Opens external
TRB. (2005). Research on women's issues in transportation, report of a conference: Technical papers. Transportation Research Board.
UITP. (2017, October). Urban Public Transport in the 21st Century. https://cms.uitp.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/UITP_Statistic-Brief_national-PT-stats.pdfOpens external
Ušpalytė-Vitkūnienė, R., Šarkienė, E., & Žilionienė, D. (2020). Multi-criteria analysis of indicators of the public transport infrastructure. Promet - Traffic&Transportation, 32(1), 119-126. https://doi.org/10.7307/ptt.v32i1.3175Opens external
Wilson, J. Q., & Kelling, G. L. (1982). Broken windows. Atlantic monthly, 249(3), 29-38.