Passengers’ Perceptions of Security Check in Metro Stations

A safer and securer public transport provides a wide range of sustainability benefits to a community. This paper explores passengers’ perception of security checks (SCs) in metro stations, with a focus on the safety and mobility of passenger flows. We used 27 scaling items categorized into five variables: efficiency, comfort, safety, privacy and willingness-to-pay. A questionnaire survey of 880 metro passengers in China showed that respondents are generally homogenous in their perceptions of metro SCs in terms of their agreement on mandatory SC policy and the priority of safety. Most passengers are willing to trade-off their trip efficiency and privacy in exchange for safety improvement, while a small proportion of people are inclined to trade-off their trip efficiency for a more comfortable waiting and riding experiences. Demographic differences such as gender and age group effects are observed. For example, females tend to be more concerned with trip comfort while older passengers are more likely to compromise their privacy with enhancement in safety features. Findings from this study can be a valuable resource to railway authorities in designing and developing a SC system at major railway hubs.