Valuing perceived insecurity associated with use of and access to public transport

This study uses a stated choice experiment and drawings of four different type-environments to assess how various security-promoting factors in the built physical environment influence valuation of walking time when accessing public transport. Valuations that can be applied for evaluating policies to improve perceived security are obtained. Consistent results are achieved, indicating that the method is promising for incorporating aspects in the physical environment in the welfare analysis. The results indicate a systematic variation in value of walk time in different physical environments and it is more dependent of the physical environment for women than for men. This paper thereby contributes to the literature by showing that results by social sciences can be verified using methods and theories traditionally used in transport and welfare analysis and may therefore be incorporated in standard CBA. A contribution of this study is the insight that the perception of insecurity involved in accessing the public transport system is a welfare loss that can be quantified.

► The impact of the build environment on the value of access walk time is explored.
► SP and pictures of environments with different security-promoting factors are used.
► The value of walk time varies with the build environment according to expectation.
► The impact of security-promoting factors on this value is larger for women than men.
► This indicates that insecurity affects welfare and can be included in appraisal.