The impact of information and communication on safety in public transport
Project leader: Prof. Dr. Thomas Friemel (Communication History and Media Change)
Project team members:
Research association/cooperation: Economic efficiency of security measures in public transport" (WiSima) / Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Hochschule Wildau, Fraunhofer-Institut (FOKUS) and Deutsche Bahn AG
Funding institution: German Federal Ministery of Education and Research (BMBF)
Project duration: 2016 - 2019
In Germany, public passenger transport (ÖPV) transports around 10 billion passengers a year. Passengers expect a high level of safety both in the vehicles and at stops and stations. However, the subjective safety felt by passengers only depends to a limited extent on objective safety, which is still high in comparison with other means of transport and life situations. This discrepancy between actual and perceived safety is influenced, among other things, by media coverage of accidents, acts of violence and, more recently, attacks. However, the various information and communication measures of the operators as well as the communication behaviour of the passengers during the journey are also of interest for perceived safety.
Due to the increasing relevance of media and communicative measures for the perception of safety, a project on the "Influence of information and communication on increasing safety in public transport" was carried out over three years under the direction of Prof. Dr. Thomas N. Friemel. The aim of the project was to analyse the status quo of safety communication, to identify optimisation potential on the part of public transport providers and to develop concrete recommendations for economically appropriate measures.
The project at ZeMKI was a sub-project of the joint project "Economic efficiency of security measures in public transport" (WiSima), in which ZeMKI, Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Hochschule Wildau, Fraunhofer-Institut (FOKUS) and Deutsche Bahn AG are involved. The research project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a sum of 264,000 euros as part of the "Civil Security - New Economic Aspects" program.