Browsing by Author "Sethulakshmi, G."

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Designing safe and accessible bus stops: an exploration of the interplay between perceived safety at crosswalk and transit ridership
(Routledge, 2025) Sethulakshmi, G.; Mohan, M.
Measuring personal safety perception is inherently complex, involving a multifaceted array of factors. This research advances the field of knowledge by developing a novel factor structure to assess pedestrian safety perceptions and modelling overall safety as a latent construct through a second-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Data were collected from 568 pedestrian interviews on safety perceptions near bus stops. The study concluded that perceived safety can be measured using four latent constructs: crosswalk infrastructure, crossing environment, management measures, and driver behavior, which collectively contribute to overall crosswalk safety. Using Structural Equation Modelling, the study confirms that as perceived safety while accessing bus stops via crosswalks decreases, bus ridership also declines. Findings also reveal demographic differences, with women, older individuals, and prior accident victims perceiving bus stop environments as less safe. Results suggest that policymakers should prioritize dedicated crosswalks and control speed and aggressive driving to maximize perceived safety at bus stops. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Factors Influencing Post-encroachment Time of Road Crossing Pedestrians Near Bus Stops Located on Mid-Block Sections
(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2024) Ajaykrishnan, M.J.; Sethulakshmi, G.; Mohan, M.
The increase in road traffic poses a significant threat to vulnerable road users, heightening the demand for their safety. According to the recent Road Accidents Statistics (MoRTH, 2020), out of the total road accidents reported in 2020, 15.8% involved pedestrians, and 65.1% occurred on straight road sections. This highlights the difficulty and lack of safety for pedestrians. Lack of visibility is the major cause of most accidents, and in the case of bus stops, parked buses affect the visibility of crossing pedestrians. In this study, traffic safety of crossing pedestrians is analysed using the proactive approach, which identifies an observable non-crash event that could have led to a conflict. Post-Encroachment Time (PET) is the most popular time-based measure that is the least time-consuming for accurate estimation of surrogate safety. This paper focuses on determining factors which affect PET of pedestrian crossings at mid-block sections with designated or undesignated bus stops. Videographic surveys were conducted at two mid-block sections with bus stops in Kerala, where accidents to pedestrians are frequent. Kinovea software was used to extract data from the recorded video samples, and IBM SPSS software was used to outline the factors influencing PET. The study found PET of crossing pedestrians to have a high positive correlation with the time taken for the vehicle to approach the crossing pedestrian, while other factors like evasive action and compliance behaviour were negatively correlated. The study proposed a model that will enable the easy computation of PET values of crossing pedestrians. Â© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.
Identifying the factors affecting users' safety at bus stops: A step towards improving bus ridership
(CRC Press, 2024) Sethulakshmi, G.; Mohan, M.
Urban sprawl has created uncontrolled vehicle growth, and achieving sustainable mobility in road transport has become a challenge. The study focuses on safety, one of the pillars of sustainable transport. Improving public transport safety is essential to enhance ridership. Ranking of different factors such as travel comfort, safety, timeliness of the buses, distance travelled, and travel time based on their priorities affecting the mode choice has concluded that safety has the second most priority, and travel distance has the least priority for bus ridership. The study also investigated the suitability of online and field surveys to measure the perceived safety of travellers at bus stops. The results recommend that field surveys are more reliable than online surveys, which fail to capture the field reality in different aspects. The safety measured directly on a five-point scale could not give valuable information on the traveller's safety perception. Therefore, the study identified the indicators capable of measuring the perceived safety of travellers at bus stops. Safety is taken as a second-order latent construct, and the hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis was carried out. The results found that safety derived from five latent variables, namely bus stop facility, bus stop location, bus operator behaviour, other users' behaviour, and pedestrian facility, is a systematic approach to measure overall perceived safety at the bus stop. Adding night lighting, taking precautions against left-side overtaking and inappropriate bus stopping, avoiding bus stops at curves and intersections, and ensuring improved sidewalk amenities could all increase the perceived safety for a bus user. © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Sreevalsa Kolathayar, N Vinod Chandra Menon and Sreekeshava K S. All rights reserved.
Modelling sidewalk safety perceptions of pedestrians accessing bus stops and uncovering its role in shaping bus ridership: An empirical investigation
(Elsevier Ltd, 2025) Sethulakshmi, G.; Mohan, M.
Measuring personal safety perception is a complex task, as it encompasses a multi-faceted array of factors. This study explores the factors influencing the perceived safety of pedestrians while accessing bus stops via sidewalks and develops a comprehensive measurement model for sidewalk safety perception. Additionally, the study investigates potential links between sidewalk safety perceptions and bus ridership by applying Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Data were collected from 568 personal interviews conducted across various Indian cities, focusing on pedestrians’ perceptions of safety while accessing bus stops. Perceived safety was conceptualized as a latent construct, with second-order confirmatory factor analysis identifying three primary dimensions: “Safety from Sidewalk Infrastructure”, “Safety from Other User Behavior” and “Safety from Sidewalk Maintenance and Management”. These three latent constructs collectively represent the overall safety perception of sidewalks in the context of bus stop access. Further analysis found that most bus users prefer a minimum sidewalk width of 1.5–2 m and an increased minimum width of 2–4 m near bus stops. The findings offer valuable insights into the intricate factors shaping pedestrian safety perceptions and provide a robust framework for enhancing sidewalk conditions to promote safer and more accessible public transit usage. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd