Safety at the bus stop : A study of the safety at bus stops in Umeå’s local bus traffic

The purpose of this study was to examine how the safety was regarded by the public at three differently located bus stops in Umeå’s local bus traffic. Umeå is in the context a medium sized town located in the northern of Sweden. The study was conducted through interviews at bus stops in three different locational districts within Umeå’s municipal borders. Vasaplan, Ålidhem and Röbäck. The bus stops differentiate from one another through means of population density, location, repute, and the availability of amenities in the area. A total of 38 recipients was interviewed at these bus stops, the questions asked to the recipients treated how the safety was perceived according to the time of the day at each location, if they had been exposed to or observed any alarming events at the bus stops as well as which attributes, they thought could increase or decrease said safety at the bus stop. The data has been analyzed through the theoretical approaches of grounded theory. The result concludes that there are differences in the perceived safety between the bus stops. Röbäck was in many regards considered the safest bus stop. Whereas the definition in the safety between Vasaplan and Ålidhem was more difficult to define. The result also contains the attributes which the recipients have opinionated contributed most to the safety at the bis stop in both a positive and a negative way. The safety at the bus stop was largely dependent upon the time of the day, as evenings were when most recipient felt unsafe in the transit environments.