Perceptions of safety, fairness and risk in road spaces shared by pedestrians, cyclists and drivers

In order to meet emission targets, it is necessary to move away from the reliance on private motor vehicles to more sustainable forms of transport. This requires changes to how people travel day-to-day, but it also requires changes to the physical infrastructure to facilitate these shifts. In later years there has been an increased recognition on the need to transition toward more sustainable transport modes, with many countries and cities investing in expanding cycle lanes and pedestrian walkways. Unfortunately, space is not infinite, and coupled with growing populations, building additional facilities for new modes of transport is not always feasible. An alternative solution is the idea of shared spaces, where different road users share the same physical space. For instance, cycles and cars sharing the road, shared cycle and pedestrian paths, and low-traffic zones where all road users operate. However, in order for these environments to function safely and effectively, it is important that users share a common understanding of how they should operate. For instance, perceived hierarchy of right of way, perceived fairness of space allocation, or perceived appropriate conduct. This is important also for new developments of such infrastructure, as (perceived) design influence perceived safety of use, which is a major determinant of actual use of shared spaces. Here we explore how different road users perceive shared road spaces. We specifically look at perceived fairness, safety and risk and who is perceived as having right-of-way. The spaces we investigate are junctions shared by pedestrians, cyclists, and motor vehicles; bus stops shared between pedestrians and cyclists; and roads shared between motor vehicles and cyclists. We further seek to test whether communication and infrastructure design elements can be used to improve shared understanding of road use. In this study, we measure expected behaviour and perceived safety, fairness and risk and experiences with different types of transport infrastructure from different road users.