Safety, Gender, and the Public Transport System in Santiago, Chile

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The focus of the paper is clear, and it fits the scope of the special issue in this journal. Overall, the article is well structured. The significance of the study is also well explained in the introduction. I have several comments below:

 

1)      The literature review summarizes the relevant literature in lack of security one of the major undesirable factors in using public transit. What is the research gap? In relation, what are the research questions here? I think a clear indication of the research questions and hypotheses would be important to strengthen the study.

 

2)      Figure 3: Are the gender difference in four difference scenarios statistically different?

 

3)      Table 2: the heading should not be "descriptive summary"?

 

4)      The low R2 of the models maybe due to the lack of consideration in other possible aspects. Apart from sociodemographic variables, a wide range environmental features can be related to the insecurity issues. Can additional factors be considered in the model? A brief comment on this may also help.

 

5)      What are the potential policy implications based on the results obtained from the survey and focus groups? A brief description in the conclusion can be helpful.

Author Response

Thank you for the opportunity to submit a new version of our article. The corrections we have made should fully address all the observations and suggestions made by the referees. We found the referees’ remarks to be highly constructive and of great assistance in making the necessary changes. We will, of course, be more than happy to clarify any problems which may remain.

 

Reviewer 1

 

The focus of the paper is clear, and it fits the scope of the special issue in this journal. Overall, the article is well structured. The significance of the study is also well explained in the introduction. I have several comments below:

 

1)      The literature review summarizes the relevant literature in lack of security one of the major undesirable factors in using public transit. What is the research gap? In relation, what are the research questions here? I think a clear indication of the research questions and hypotheses would be important to strengthen the study.

 

Resp. We added the research questions in the last paragraph of section 2:

“We conclude in this bibliographic review that the lack of security in the public transit system is experienced as a way of transit disadvantage, and consequently, it becomes an element that triggers social exclusion, specifically when gender is considered, resulting in our interest in deepening into this problem. Consequently, the research question Are there any gender differences when analyzing insecurity perceptions in public transport in Santiago de Chile? and What are the factors that explain those differences?”

 

 

2) Figure 3: Are the gender difference in four difference scenarios statistically different?

 

Resp. Yes, in all scenarios, the gender difference is significant with 95% confidence. We included that sentence in the article to clarify.

 

3) Table 2: the heading should not be "descriptive summary"?

 

Resp. Thanks, we change the title of table 2 to Ordinal logistic regression models.

 

4) The low R2 of the models maybe due to the lack of consideration in other possible aspects. Apart from sociodemographic variables, a wide range environmental features can be related to the insecurity issues. Can additional factors be considered in the model? A brief comment on this may also help.

 

Resp. Yes, other factors can be considered in the model, but in our case, it was not possible to do so, because the ENUSC survey 2019 does not include other variables. In a future study we would like include additional factors, which were added to the conclusions:

 

“Although the Ministry of Transport has currently launched the first Gender Equity Policy in Transport, where one of the objectives is to promote equal levels of safety in the use of public transport, it is still necessary to reformulate the conceptual frame of insecurity, which in this survey is limited to fear of crime, excluding fears or insecurities related to harassment, traffic accidents, discrimination (genderphobia, xenophobia) expressed in words, gestures and/or violence, contagious diseases, street protests among others. To carry out a precise public policy on this matter, a permanent scan of security issues in public transport should be developed, considering a complete set of variables, including the ones mentioned here, besides some of the factors mentioned in the literature that are not present in ENUSC, such as socioeconomic variables (income and neighborhood); psychological factors (traveling alone or accompanied; security element present in the transport mode, police presence), and travel variables (origin, destination, travel time). Unfortunately, the last two ENUSC (2020 and 2021) did not consider the variables studied by this research, therefore, policy makers do not have access to understand how safety in public transport system is evolving. Public opinion on the increase of insecurity in Chile, and the relevance of avoiding this disadvantage in public transport are key for major public policies on social inclusion and gender equity. A deeper study is especially relevant nowadays given the increase of insecurity after the COVID pandemic, being the current most relevant public issue in the country”

 

 

5) What are the potential policy implications based on the results obtained from the survey and focus groups? A brief description in the conclusion can be helpful.

 

Resp: Considering the recommendations of all reviewers, the conclusions were reordered and supplemented to account for more summary data and greater depth of their implications. The conclusions section was as follows:

“This research evaluates gender differences in the perception of safety in public transport in Santiago, Chile using both a quantitative and a qualitative approach. Four ordinal logistic regression models were estimated to analyze how sociodemographic factors and variables associated with the perception of crime influence riders’ perception of safety in public transport. To complement the results 4 focus groups were developed to obtain a deep understanding of the participants’ experiences with safety in the Santiago public transport system.

With data from the ENUSC 2019 survey carried out by the Undersecretary for Crime Prevention of the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security a gender comparison was made regarding the perception of safety in four scenarios: inside buses, inside the metro, at bus stops, and waiting for buses at night. The estimated models provide information on different factors that influence perceived insecurity in public transportation and whereabouts. In general, perceived insecurity inside buses, inside the Metro, and waiting for public transport at night is greater among women, older people and national citizens. Other influencing variables are the perception of insecurity regarding crime in general, the fear of being a victim of crime or negative situations that occur in the neighborhood, such as the presence of robberies, alcohol, and drug consumption.

In all the estimated models, the probability that women feel more insecure compared to men is greater: on the metro women are more likely to respond that they feel very insecure (5%) or insecure (15%) while inside the bus and waiting for public transport at night, probability increases 15% and waiting at a bus stop the probability reaches 9%.

The analysis carried out also allows us to confirm that perceived insecurity also affects the use of public transport. 36% of those surveyed stated that they had stopped using empty buses as a result of perceived insecurity, while 65% stated that they avoided bus stops at night. In both cases, more than 60% of those in this situation were female users. Although these results do not include harassment, they are showing a worrying reality for 50% of the population This is ratified by focus groups where participants stated that the use of public transport at night is one of the scenarios that generates the greatest concern in terms of safety, especially for women who avoid traveling at night, choose longer but safer routs or pay for more expensive but reliable modes of transport, such us uber/taxi.

It is interesting to note that the perception of insecurity in public transport, although it is affected by the previous experience of having been a victim of a crime, the ENUSC 2019 shows that only 12% of the people who declared perceiving insecurity had experienced a robbery, theft, or injury. If we consider the people who avoided using empty buses or bus stops at night, most of them had not been victims of a crime, which shows that previous experience as crime victims do not have a direct influence on the perception of insecurity and subsequent exclusion of using the transport system. A possible explanation is the influence of the media, the main source of information on the subject, widely surpassing sources such as their own experience or that of household members. Analyzing the data from other cities in Chile, although the general levels of insecurity may vary in magnitude, the gender difference is constant throughout the country, where some cities present more radical variations than others.

Although the Ministry of Transport has currently launched the first Gender Equity Policy in Transport, where one of the objectives is to promote equal levels of safety in the use of public transport, it is still necessary to reformulate the conceptual frame of insecurity, which in this survey is limited to fear of crime, excluding fears or insecurities related to harassment, traffic accidents, discrimination (genderphobia, xenophobia) expressed in words, gestures and/or violence, contagious diseases, street protests among others. To carry out a precise public policy on this matter, a permanent scan of security issues in public transport should be developed, considering a complete set of variables, including the ones mentioned here, besides some of the factors mentioned in the literature that are not present in ENUSC, such as socioeconomic variables (income and neighborhood); psychological factors (traveling alone or accompanied; security element present in the transport mode, police presence), and travel variables (origin, destination, travel time). Unfortunately, the last two ENUSC (2020 and 2021) did not consider the variables studied by this research, therefore, policy makers do not have access to understand how safety in public transport system is evolving. Public opinion on the increase of insecurity in Chile, and the relevance of avoiding this disadvantage in public transport are key for major public policies on social inclusion and gender equity. A deeper study is especially relevant nowadays given the increase of insecurity after the COVID pandemic, being the current most relevant public issue in the country.

It is possible to conclude that there is a high perception of insecurity in public transport for both men and women, with women being the ones who declare feeling more insecure when using public transport. This lack of security in public spaces indicates a decrement of democratic standards limiting women’s freedom of movement and choices available, as well as an element of exclusion from social opportunities. Although a high level of insecurity perception is well known in Latin American public transport, gender differences evidenced show a source of inequality that must be remedied by the public authorities of these countries”.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The topic presented in the paper is valid and still on time. In the reviewed paper, the Authors presented the problem of safety, gender, and the public transport system in Santiago, Chile using both a quantitative and a qualitative approach. The Authors have made a gender comparison regarding the perception of safety in four scenarios: inside buses, inside the metro, at bus stops, and waiting for buses at night. Four ordinal logistic regression models were estimated to analyze how sociodemographic factors and variables associated with the perception of crime influence riders’ perception of safety in public transport. To complement the results four focus groups were developed to obtain a deep understanding of the participants’ experiences with safety in the Santiago public transport system. In my opinion, the paper can be published, after taking into account the following remarks:

- for all used acronyms, together with the first acronym used, at the same time should be given the full meaning of the acronym. As far now, we can find some acronyms without explanation, e.g. ENUSC, BID, OLS, etc.,

-   at the end of the abstract section, the Authors should shortly write where the obtained results can be used,

-at the end of the Introduction section, the Authors should shortly write what was contained in each paper section,

- the paper deals with safety, gender issues, and the public transport system. In the Introduction section, the Authors presented the background and described among others the problems of public services which should effectively respond to the needs of all members of the community, and provide access to safe, affordable, accessible, and sustainable transport systems for all public transport users, safety and security issues in public transport, etc. It is very good, but the Authors did not mention about well-designed transport infrastructure as well as devices supporting traffic in the area of ​​public transport like P&R systems or bike sharing systems, which improve traffic in public transport points. The Authors should mention these popular solutions in the world, thus referring to the latest works in this field, i.e. "The analysis of the factors determining the choice of park and ride facility using a multinomial logit model", doi 10.3390/en14010203; "Optimizing the Location of Park-and-Ride Facilities in Suburban and Urban Areas Considering the Characteristics of Coverage Requirements" doi.org/10.3390/su14031502; "P&R parking and bike-sharing system as solutions supporting transport accessibility of the city", doi 10.21307/TP-2020-066. One short paragraph in the Introduction section will be enough,

- "3. Methodology" section: the research sample size seems to be small. Do the Authors check if the gathered research sample is enough from the statistical point of view for conducting the analysis?

- in line 226, the Authors wrote like follows: ..." According to the latest Origin and Destination Travel Survey 2012 [51]"... The data seems to be quite old. Why the Authors did not use the newest origin and destination travel survey data?,

- equation 1: usually in this type of equation in the bracket, we can find "+" sign near the beta coefficient, the Authors have "-" sign, why?

- there is a lack of discussion dedicated to obtained results. The Authors can either add a new section called "Results" before the "Conclusions" section or include the discussion in the Conclusions section,

  - moreover, the "Conclusions" section is written in a very general way and should be extended by adding some detailed conclusions from the presented in the paper research,

- appendix A should be included in the paper body, i.e., it can be included in the section called "4. Results and discussion".

Author Response

Thank you for the opportunity to submit a new version of our article. The corrections we have made should fully address all the observations and suggestions made by the referees. We found the referees’ remarks to be highly constructive and of great assistance in making the necessary changes. We will, of course, be more than happy to clarify any problems which may remain.

 

Reviewer 1

 

The topic presented in the paper is valid and still on time. In the reviewed paper, the Authors presented the problem of safety, gender, and the public transport system in Santiago, Chile using both a quantitative and a qualitative approach. The Authors have made a gender comparison regarding the perception of safety in four scenarios: inside buses, inside the metro, at bus stops, and waiting for buses at night. Four ordinal logistic regression models were estimated to analyze how sociodemographic factors and variables associated with the perception of crime influence riders’ perception of safety in public transport. To complement the results four focus groups were developed to obtain a deep understanding of the participants’ experiences with safety in the Santiago public transport system. In my opinion, the paper can be published, after taking into account the following remarks:

 

- for all used acronyms, together with the first acronym used, at the same time should be given the full meaning of the acronym. As far now, we can find some acronyms without explanation, e.g. ENUSC, BID, OLS, etc.,

 

Resp. We have eliminated acronyms that we do not use and explicit the acronym ENUSC (National Urban Citizen Security Survey) and the acronym INE (National Institute of Statistics). The acronyms are according to their initials in Spanish.

 

-   at the end of the abstract section, the Authors should shortly write where the obtained results can be used,

 

Resp. At the end of the abstract, we add a brief text regarding the use that can be given to the results obtained. We added the following sentence:

“We proposed new variables such as fear of harassment, traffic accidents, discrimination, contagious diseases, street protests among others. To carry out a precise public policy on this matter, a permanent scan on security issues in public transport should be developed, considering a complete set of variables. This result can be applied in Chile and all Latin American countries”.

 

-at the end of the Introduction section, the Authors should shortly write what was contained in each paper section,

Resp. We added a short paragraph with the contents of each section:

“The remainder of this study is divided into four sections. Section 2 is a bibliographic review of the perception of safety in public transport and its main factors. Section 3 presents the methodological aspects of the ENUSC survey, the focus groups carried out, and the ordinal logistic regression models. We also provide a brief description of the public transport system of Santiago, Chile. Section 4 sets out the results of our estimated models. Finally, section 5 presents our conclusions”.

 

- the paper deals with safety, gender issues, and the public transport system. In the Introduction section, the Authors presented the background and described among others the problems of public services which should effectively respond to the needs of all members of the community, and provide access to safe, affordable, accessible, and sustainable transport systems for all public transport users, safety and security issues in public transport, etc. It is very good, but the Authors did not mention about well-designed transport infrastructure as well as devices supporting traffic in the area of ​​public transport like P&R systems or bike sharing systems, which improve traffic in public transport points. The Authors should mention these popular solutions in the world, thus referring to the latest works in this field, i.e. "The analysis of the factors determining the choice of park and ride facility using a multinomial logit model", doi 10.3390/en14010203; "Optimizing the Location of Park-and-Ride Facilities in Suburban and Urban Areas Considering the Characteristics of Coverage Requirements" doi.org/10.3390/su14031502; "P&R parking and bike-sharing system as solutions supporting transport accessibility of the city", doi 10.21307/TP-2020-066. One short paragraph in the Introduction section will be enough,

 

Resp: We added the following paragraph to the introduction:

“In this context, transport planners have made efforts to promote more inclusive public transport, proposing improvements in accessibility and quality of service [2], in the dedicated infrastructure [3], as well as devices supporting traffic in the area of public transport like P&R systems or bike sharing systems, which improve traffic in public transport points [4-6]”.

2. Lättman, K.; Friman, M.; Olsson, L.E. Perceived accessibility of public transport as a potential indicator of social inclusion. Social inclusion 2016, 4, 36-45.
3. Macioszek, E.; Kurek, A. The analysis of the factors determining the choice of park and ride facility using a multinomial logit model. Energies 2021, 14, 203.
4. Macioszek, E.; Kurek, A. P&R parking and bike-sharing system as solutions supporting transport accessibility of the city. Transport Problems 2020, 15.
5. Liu, H.; Li, Y.; Li, J.; Hou, B.; Zhao, S. Optimizing the Location of Park-and-Ride Facilities in Suburban and Urban Areas Considering the Characteristics of Coverage Requirements. Sustainability 2022, 14, 1502.

- "3. Methodology" section: the research sample size seems to be small. Do the Authors check if the gathered research sample is enough from the statistical point of view for conducting the analysis?

 

Resp:  We check that the sample size is adequate. According to technical data from the ENUSC survey the sample size was designed to obtain estimates of the parameter of interest with absolute errors of a maximum 2.3%, together with relative errors of a maximum 8.5% for districts with more than 200,000 inhabitants. Therefore, the sample size is enough from the statistical point of view.

 

- in line 226, the Authors wrote like follows: ..." According to the latest Origin and Destination Travel Survey 2012 [51]"... The data seems to be quite old. Why the Authors did not use the newest origin and destination travel survey data?,

 

Resp. This is the latest survey available for the city of Santiago, therefore, all transport researchers in Santiago use this data to describe the system.

 

- equation 1: usually in this type of equation in the bracket, we can find "+" sign near the beta coefficient, the Authors have "-" sign, why?

 

Resp: We originally used the equation presented in reference [57]. Because of the reviewer's suggestion, we used the "+" sign to leave the equation as it is usually presented.

 

- there is a lack of discussion dedicated to obtained results. The Authors can either add a new section called "Results" before the "Conclusions" section or include the discussion in the Conclusions section,

 

Resp: We rename section 4 as results and add the discussion in the conclusions.

  - moreover, the "Conclusions" section is written in a very general way and should be extended by adding some detailed conclusions from the presented in the paper research,

Resp: Considering the recommendations of both reviewers, the conclusions were reordered and supplemented to account for more summary data and greater depth of their implications. The conclusions section was as follows:

“This research evaluates gender differences in the perception of safety in public transport in Santiago, Chile using both a quantitative and a qualitative approach. Four ordinal logistic regression models were estimated to analyze how sociodemographic factors and variables associated with the perception of crime influence riders’ perception of safety in public transport. To complement the results 4 focus groups were developed to obtain a deep understanding of the participants’ experiences with safety in the Santiago public transport system.

With data from the ENUSC 2019 survey carried out by the Undersecretary for Crime Prevention of the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security a gender comparison was made regarding the perception of safety in four scenarios: inside buses, inside the metro, at bus stops, and waiting for buses at night. The estimated models provide information on different factors that influence perceived insecurity in public transportation and whereabouts. In general, perceived insecurity inside buses, inside the Metro, and waiting for public transport at night is greater among women, older people and national citizens. Other influencing variables are the perception of insecurity regarding crime in general, the fear of being a victim of crime or negative situations that occur in the neighborhood, such as the presence of robberies, alcohol, and drug consumption.

In all the estimated models, the probability that women feel more insecure compared to men is greater: on the metro women are more likely to respond that they feel very insecure (5%) or insecure (15%) while inside the bus and waiting for public transport at night, probability increases 15% and waiting at a bus stop the probability reaches 9%.

The analysis carried out also allows us to confirm that perceived insecurity also affects the use of public transport. 36% of those surveyed stated that they had stopped using empty buses as a result of perceived insecurity, while 65% stated that they avoided bus stops at night. In both cases, more than 60% of those in this situation were female users. Although these results do not include harassment, they are showing a worrying reality for 50% of the population This is ratified by focus groups where participants stated that the use of public transport at night is one of the scenarios that generates the greatest concern in terms of safety, especially for women who avoid traveling at night, choose longer but safer routs or pay for more expensive but reliable modes of transport, such us uber/taxi.

It is interesting to note that the perception of insecurity in public transport, although it is affected by the previous experience of having been a victim of a crime, the ENUSC 2019 shows that only 12% of the people who declared perceiving insecurity had experienced a robbery, theft, or injury. If we consider the people who avoided using empty buses or bus stops at night, most of them had not been victims of a crime, which shows that previous experience as crime victims do not have a direct influence on the perception of insecurity and subsequent exclusion of using the transport system. A possible explanation is the influence of the media, the main source of information on the subject, widely surpassing sources such as their own experience or that of household members. Analyzing the data from other cities in Chile, although the general levels of insecurity may vary in magnitude, the gender difference is constant throughout the country, where some cities present more radical variations than others.

Although the Ministry of Transport has currently launched the first Gender Equity Policy in Transport, where one of the objectives is to promote equal levels of safety in the use of public transport, it is still necessary to reformulate the conceptual frame of insecurity, which in this survey is limited to fear of crime, excluding fears or insecurities related to harassment, traffic accidents, discrimination (genderphobia, xenophobia) expressed in words, gestures and/or violence, contagious diseases, street protests among others. To carry out a precise public policy on this matter, a permanent scan on security issues in public transport should be developed, considering a complete set of variables, including the ones mentioned here. Unfortunately, the last two ENUSC (2020 and 2021) did not consider the variables studied by this research, there for, policy makers do not have access to understand how safety in public transport system is evolving. Public opinion on the increase of insecurity in Chile, and the relevance of avoiding this disadvantage in public transport are key for mayor public policies on social inclusion and gender equity. A deeper study is especially relevant nowadays given the increase of insecurity after the COVID pandemic, being the current most relevant public issue in the country.

It is possible to conclude that there is a high perception of insecurity in public transport for both men and women, with women being the ones who declare feeling more insecure when using public transport. This lack of security in public spaces indicates a decrement of democratic standards limiting women’s freedom of movement and choices available, as well as an element of exclusion from social opportunities. Although a high level of insecurity perception is well known in Latin American public transport, gender differences evidenced show a source of inequality that must be remedied by the public authorities of these countries”.

- appendix A should be included in the paper body, i.e., it can be included in the section called "4. Results and discussion".

Resp. Ok, we place table 3 in section 4.

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Congrats to the Authors for this interesting manuscript; there is never enough literature on this topic.

Not much to add on this case study, aside from two requests:

a) could you elaborate more the part on methodology? For example Kish methodology, ENUSC, how the focus groups were carried out and when?

b) the conclusions look like a proxy for a short summary; on the contrary, please stress caveats and further developments more; would the achieved results represent just a local situation (Santiago) or could be representative of the Country? 

Author Response

Thank you for the opportunity to submit a new version of our article. The corrections we have made should fully address all the observations and suggestions made by the referees. We found the referees’ remarks to be highly constructive and of great assistance in making the necessary changes. We will, of course, be more than happy to clarify any problems which may remain.

 

Reviewer 2

 

Congrats to the Authors for this interesting manuscript; there is never enough literature on this topic. Not much to add on this case study, aside from two requests:

 

1. a) could you elaborate more the part on methodology? For example Kish methodology, ENUSC, how the focus groups were carried out and when?

 

Resp. More information was added about the Kish methodology, the sample size of the ENUSC survey, and how the focus groups were carried out. We complemented the text, and the final version is the following:

“ENUSC is a fieldwork face-to-face survey with a probabilistic, three-stage, and geographically stratified sample design by district and classification of the blocks according to the number of residences they contain. The first stage consists of the selection with equal probability of communes or blocks, to then choose houses in the same way within the previous section. Finally, the Kish informant selection methodology assigns to each eligible person in the household the same probability of selection, thus preserving the probabilistic nature of the sample design applied in the previous selection stages. This approach is relatively easy to implement in the field, since the probability assignment mechanism does not require control in the distribution of predefined tables among the interviewers, and is easy to supervise, because it incorporates the ordered list of household members, always starting with the head of the family, followed by the rest of the members from oldest to youngest [55], in this way, people over 15 years of age can be chosen.

The questionnaire structure consists of two parts (i) registration of the household in-formant (RPH) and (ii) the central questionnaire. The first part (18 variables) seeks to register household socio-demographic characteristics, while the second part is made up of three units and is aimed exclusively at the respondent: i) perception of insecurity and the reaction of people to crime; ii) registers households’ victims of crimes and attempted crimes, as well as the characteristics of such events; iii) and the evaluation of institutions related to the public security system. It also includes neighborhood context variables and the tenement occupied by the household surveyed.

The sample at the national level consists of 24,465 households (76,567 persons), however, in this research we limited the analysis to the metropolitan region of Santiago, with a sample of 5,785 households (19,088 persons). The sample size was designed to obtain estimates of the parameter of interest with theoretical absolute errors of a maximum 2.3%, together with theoretical relative errors of a maximum 8.5% for districts with more than 200,000 inhabitants. We focused on the questions about the perception of safety in public transport, where the respondents answered according to a Likert scale of 4 values (1. very insecure, 2. insecure, 3. secure, and 4. very secure) their perception of safety in the following situations: inside buses, inside the metro, at bus stops, and waiting for buses at night.

To complement the results a qualitative phase was developed applying 4 focus groups held in May 2019 at Diego Portales University, aiming to obtain a deep understanding of the experiences, perceptions, opinions, feelings, and knowledge of the participants about safety in the Santiago public transport system. The sample consisted of a group of 7 university students; 6 working women, mainly foreigners, who work as housekeeper in a high socioeconomic sector; 5 female university students; and 5 senior citizens. The conversations lasted between 70 and 90 minutes and consisted of a set of 8 questions that addressed issues related to the disadvantages of public transportation, making it clear to the participants that in the process it was not necessary to generate agreements or consensus, so everyone's opinion, no matter how different, was welcome. Results are presented as a complement to the quantitative analysis.”.

 

 

1. b) the conclusions look like a proxy for a short summary; on the contrary, please stress caveats and further developments more; would the achieved results represent just a local situation (Santiago) or could be representative of the Country?

 

Resp: Considering the recommendations of both reviewers, the conclusions were reordered and supplemented to account for more summary data and greater depth of their implications. The conclusions section was as follows:

“This research evaluates gender differences in the perception of safety in public transport in Santiago, Chile using both a quantitative and a qualitative approach. Four ordinal logistic regression models were estimated to analyze how sociodemographic factors and variables associated with the perception of crime influence riders’ perception of safety in public transport. To complement the results 4 focus groups were developed to obtain a deep understanding of the participants’ experiences with safety in the Santiago public transport system.

With data from the ENUSC 2019 survey carried out by the Undersecretary for Crime Prevention of the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security a gender comparison was made regarding the perception of safety in four scenarios: inside buses, inside the metro, at bus stops, and waiting for buses at night. The estimated models provide information on different factors that influence perceived insecurity in public transportation and whereabouts. In general, perceived insecurity inside buses, inside the Metro, and waiting for public transport at night is greater among women, older people and national citizens. Other influencing variables are the perception of insecurity regarding crime in general, the fear of being a victim of crime or negative situations that occur in the neighborhood, such as the presence of robberies, alcohol, and drug consumption.

In all the estimated models, the probability that women feel more insecure compared to men is greater: on the metro women are more likely to respond that they feel very insecure (5%) or insecure (15%) while inside the bus and waiting for public transport at night, probability increases 15% and waiting at a bus stop the probability reaches 9%.

The analysis carried out also allows us to confirm that perceived insecurity also affects the use of public transport. 36% of those surveyed stated that they had stopped using empty buses as a result of perceived insecurity, while 65% stated that they avoided bus stops at night. In both cases, more than 60% of those in this situation were female users. Although these results do not include harassment, they are showing a worrying reality for 50% of the population This is ratified by focus groups where participants stated that the use of public transport at night is one of the scenarios that generates the greatest concern in terms of safety, especially for women who avoid traveling at night, choose longer but safer routs or pay for more expensive but reliable modes of transport, such us uber/taxi.

It is interesting to note that the perception of insecurity in public transport, although it is affected by the previous experience of having been a victim of a crime, the ENUSC 2019 shows that only 12% of the people who declared perceiving insecurity had experienced a robbery, theft, or injury. If we consider the people who avoided using empty buses or bus stops at night, most of them had not been victims of a crime, which shows that previous experience as crime victims do not have a direct influence on the perception of insecurity and subsequent exclusion of using the transport system. A possible explanation is the influence of the media, the main source of information on the subject, widely surpassing sources such as their own experience or that of household members. Analyzing the data from other cities in Chile, although the general levels of insecurity may vary in magnitude, the gender difference is constant throughout the country, where some cities present more radical variations than others.

Although the Ministry of Transport has currently launched the first Gender Equity Policy in Transport, where one of the objectives is to promote equal levels of safety in the use of public transport, it is still necessary to reformulate the conceptual frame of insecurity, which in this survey is limited to fear of crime, excluding fears or insecurities related to harassment, traffic accidents, discrimination (genderphobia, xenophobia) expressed in words, gestures and/or violence, contagious diseases, street protests among others. To carry out a precise public policy on this matter, a permanent scan on security issues in public transport should be developed, considering a complete set of variables, including the ones mentioned here. Unfortunately, the last two ENUSC (2020 and 2021) did not consider the variables studied by this research, there for, policy makers do not have access to understand how safety in public transport system is evolving. Public opinion on the increase of insecurity in Chile, and the relevance of avoiding this disadvantage in public transport are key for mayor public policies on social inclusion and gender equity. A deeper study is especially relevant nowadays given the increase of insecurity after the COVID pandemic, being the current most relevant public issue in the country.

It is possible to conclude that there is a high perception of insecurity in public transport for both men and women, with women being the ones who declare feeling more insecure when using public transport. This lack of security in public spaces indicates a decrement of democratic standards limiting women’s freedom of movement and choices available, as well as an element of exclusion from social opportunities. Although a high level of insecurity perception is well known in Latin American public transport, gender differences evidenced show a source of inequality that must be remedied by the public authorities of these countries”.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you, authors, for another round of revision and incorporate my suggested edits. The comments are well addressed. In particular, the research questions and policy implications are now much clearer than the previous version. The limitations are also clearly delineated. I think it can be accepted in the present form.