Gender Inequality in Safety and Security Perceptions in Railway Stations

Pierluigi Coppola and Fulvio Silvestri
Additional contact information
Pierluigi Coppola: Dipartimento di Meccanica, Politecnico di Milano, Via G. La Masa 1, 20156 Milano, Italy
Fulvio Silvestri: Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Impresa, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Roma, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: Recent studies have shown that gender is the personal aspect that mostly affects mobility patterns and travel behaviors. It has been observed, for instance, that female perception of unsafety and insecurity when traveling using public transport forces them to make unwanted travel choices, such as avoiding traveling at certain times of day and to specific destinations. In order to improve the attractiveness of public transport services, this gender gap must not be overlooked. This paper aims at contributing to research in gendered mobility by investigating differences in safety and security perceptions in railway stations, and by identifying which policies could be effective in bridging any existing gap. The methodology includes the collection of disaggregate data through a mixed Revealed Preference/Stated Preference survey, and the estimation of fixed and random parameters behavioral models. Results from a medium-sized Italian railway station show that female travelers feel safer in the presence of other people; they prefer intermodal infrastructures close to the entrance of the station and commercial activities in the internal premises. Moreover, unlike male travelers, they do not appreciate the presence of hedges and greenery outside stations.

Keywords: gendered mobility; risk perception; railway station design; mixed logit models; RP/SP survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/4007/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/4007/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:4007-:d:529942

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().