Perceptions of pedestrian safety in Delhi: A Rasch analysis approach

Safety perception about the built environment influences a pedestrian's walking and crossing decisions. Rasch analysis, a relatively underutilized psychometric technique in the road safety domain, can provide deep insights into pedestrian's perceptions and decision making process. This paper evaluates pedestrian safety perception based on built environment features in Delhi, India. Pedestrians' perceptions of built environment was collected and analyzed using the Rasch technique to simultaneously compute pedestrian performances and safety constructs. The analysis highlights key areas that need immediate interventions. Results revealed that most safety-related constructs are beyond the safety thresholds of even the most capable pedestrians, suggesting that the general pedestrian environment in Delhi is hostile to walking. This paper also discusses the implications of Rasch analysis for revising survey questions, providing valuable insights for early researchers about survey questionnaire design. • Safety perceptions play a crucial role in walking decisions in low- and middle-income countries. • Rasch analysis is used to simultaneously evaluate pedestrian and item safety. • Most items listed are beyond the safety threshold of pedestrians. • Results show that Delhi's pedestrian environment is highly hostile. • Rasch analysis highlight items that need immediate interventions.