The Effects of Cultural Dimension on People’s Perception about Security on Public Transport

This paper describes the importance for those seeking to increase usage of public transport in diverse urban populations to understand and take account of differences between cultural groups to increase travel opportunities in an inclusive way. With increasingly diverse urban populations, research shows that perceptions of and feelings about security as well as actual experience affect people’s patronage of public transport. Studies also show that perceptions differ between ethnic groups. This paper investigates the reasons for the differences using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (HCD). Hofstede’s dimensions have been used widely in marketing and management studies to explain differences in consumer and employee behavior in terms of cultural background. However, as far as the authors are aware, HCD has never been used to explain travel behavior differences. This paper examines whether and how Hofstede’s dimension can be used to explain the differences in travel behavior, especially for security perception on public transport. Using secondary analysis of data from two studies in the United Kingdom (UK), the paper uses HCD to offer an explanation based on the cultural background of the differences between Asian and British people’s perceptions about security on public transport. Using HCD, an explanation for Asian people’s preference for closed circuit television (CCTV) as an additional security is that they come from countries with a high power distance and this affects their trust of authority. Based on this, people would think that CCTV provides independent evidence if something happens. Other dimensions can also be used to explain this phenomenon. Despite the limited data available, the findings show that HCD can be used to explain travel behavior differences based on ethnicity/cultural background.