Place-based crime prevention theories emphasize the role of physical environment in the reduction of crime and fear of crime in different urban settings. Bus stops are expected to provide comfortable, safe and secure environments for the people to wait for the bus. The overall physical environment of bus stop settings can be classified into: surrounding built environment, street environment and bus stop (shelter) environment. Previous studies established that fear of crime is influenced by characteristics of bus shelter and surrounding environment. It is observed that most research in this context was undertaken in countries like the US and UK, whereas not much research work is reported in countries like India. This study investigated the influence of the type of shelter, and physical and nonphysical characteristics of bus shelter on fear of crime of people waiting at the bus stops in the Indian context. Bus shelter characteristics of selected bus stops in Tiruchirappalli were recorded and the people waiting at the bus stops were interviewed to assess their fear of crime. The results of the analyses using t-tests and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that the nonphysical characteristics (i.e., bus shelter crowding and the presence of non-commuters) influenced fear of crime, whereas significant relationship between fear of crime and physical characteristics of bus shelters could not be established.

Place-based theories, such as defensible space, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), situational crime prevention and environmental criminology, focus on the relationship between environmental influences and crime, with concentration on places and settings (Schneider and Kitchen, 2007). Based on these theories, specific environmental design strategies have been adopted for various urban settings to reduce the crime and fear of crime in countries like the US and UK. A safe and secure experience at the bus stops is a primary expectation of all transit patrons (Tucker, 2003). The studies on bus stop settings focus either on the influence of urban form, street and bus stop characteristics on the reported crime counts (Loukaitou-Sideris, 1999; Liggett et al., 2001; and Loukaitou-Sideris et al., 2001) or on the influence of shelter design, signage, lighting, and amenities of the bus shelters, and very few attributes of the environment of bus stop locations on the perception of crime risk in bus stops (Lusk, 2002). The findings of these studies may not be directly applicable for the Indian bus stop settings as argued by Schneider and Kitchen (2007) that the crime prevention approaches need to be tailored to specific local circumstances. Though people have raised concerns about the crime and fear of crime in urban public places such as bus stops in major cities, not many studies focus on the role of physical design aspects of urban environments in the reduction of both crime and fear of crime in India. Hence, a broader study on the influence of the surrounding built environment characteristics, street characteristics and bus shelter characteristics on fear of crime for people waiting at the bus stops is being carried out in the Indian context. One part of the research findings, i.e., the influence of bus shelter design and physical and nonphysical characteristics of bus shelters on the fear of crime, is reported in this paper.

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