Mobility-related harassment: Assessing individual and situational factors

• One in eight individuals experienced harassment in Valencia. • Having a disability makes one 3 times more likely to be harassed. • Cycling, longer trips and caring for others also effect harassment. • Harassment is not associated to age, gender, and sexual orientation. • Poorly surveyed locations are typical places of harassment. Mobility-related harassment in public spaces is a persistent barrier to safe and inclusive urban mobility. Yet, research on the situational factors that contribute to such harassment remains limited. Mobility-related harassment limits access to public spaces and transit, making it fundamental to identify both individual and situational risk factors to improve urban safety. This study contributes to this knowledge base by examining mobility-related harassment in the province of Valencia, Spain, using data from an open-access Mobility Survey ( N = 445) and from fieldwork inspections. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and regression models are used to analyse individual and situational factors linked to mobility-related harassment. The findings reveal that disability is a key determinant of mobility-related harassment, with additional risks for individuals travelling with dependents, and bicycle usage, even after accounting for frequency of transit usage, neighbourhood centrality, and income levels. Fieldwork inspections reveal that these incidents are concentrated in areas near transit environments and green spaces with limited surveillance. The findings underscore that effectively reducing mobility-related harassment in public spaces requires attention not only to traditional individual characteristics (e.g., gender, age) but also to disability and the situational factors in which harassment occurs.