Perceived safety: Discovering what makes female students feel safe or unsafe when cycling at night

Keywords

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Issue Date

2024-06-25

Language

en

Document type

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Title

ISSN

Volume

Issue

Startpage

Endpage

DOI

Abstract

Perceived safety has been found to be a determinant for cycling engagement (Mateo-Babiano, et.al. 2017; Prati, et.al. 2019). It was also found that women have more concern for social safety than men, particularly at night (Graystone, 2022). This research argues that in order to make cycling not only accessible but sufficiently pleasant for women at night, their unique safety concerns must be addressed. This research uses the Socio-ecological model to investigate what factors influence women’s perceived safety of nighttime cycling. Three focus groups were carried out with female students living in Nijmegen. The focus group questioning focused on what factors impact the women’s perceived safety while cycling at night. The results of these focus groups found that factors within all three spheres, physical-environmental, social-environmental and individual impact women’s perceived safety. Additionally, it was found that the spheres have an interconnected relationship and impact each other. In particular, the social-environment influenced the women’s perceived safety by shaping their reaction to the physical-environment and the relevance of individual factors. In order to encourage nighttime cycling amongst women, all three spheres must be considered.

Description

Citation

Faculty

Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen