Judgement of Transport Security, Risk Sensitivity and Travel Mode Use in Urban Areas

The current study aims to examine judgement of security in public transport and, more specifically, the role of the priority of security and risk sensitivity in the use of public travel modes versus car among an urban public. The results are based on a self-completion questionnaire survey conducted among residents above 18 years of age in the six most urbanised areas in Norway ( n = 1043). The respondents were randomly obtained from the Norwegian population registry. The results showed that priority of security as well as risk sensitivity was significant predictors of travel mode use among an urban public when demographic factors were controlled for. In studies carried out previously, risk sensitivity was conceived to be a predictor of risk perception. The large proportion of explained variance in perceived risk reported in previous studies could be partly due to the use of risk sensitivity as a predictor variable, which is coincident with the criterion variable. It is suggested that the risk perception concept could be replaced with perceived risk evaluations, which cover the intuitive cognitive judgements of probability of an event with negative consequences as well as the severity of consequences if such an event takes place. It is proposed that risk sensitivity could be the main concept, covering the perceived risk evaluations, including intuitive judgments of probability as well as severity of consequences across a set of risk sources.