How Safe Do We Feel? Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Perceived Personal Safety Fostered through Technology during Door-to-Door Transportation

Abstract

As concerns about personal safety during door-to-door transportation con tinue to rise, the need for an effective way to measure how well technology addresses these concerns has never been more urgent. This project intro duces the Perceived Personal Safety Scale (PPSS), a new tool designed to measure the effectiveness of technological innovations in enhancing travel ers’ perceived personal safety. We developed this scale by first diving into existing research and then conducting focus groups to uncover the key fac tors that affect feelings of safety. This approach helped us create and a list of scale items. After an expert review to refine those items and exploratory factor analysis, we reduced them down to a concise thirteen-item scale. We thoroughly tested the PPSS to ensure it was both reliable and valid. Now, researchers and personal safety technology developers can use this scale to measure—and effectively compare—the impact of various technologies on personal safety, paving the way for more effective safety solutions in transportation systems.