Relative weighting of lighting alongside other environmental features in affecting pedestrian reassurance

This paper examines whether lighting affects pedestrian reassurance after dark. While there are a few past studies investigating this issue, review of the methods used gives reason to doubt their findings. This article presents a new procedure in which participants were asked to discuss reasons for reassurance using photographs of real environments as visual prompts. These were photographs provided by participants to illustrate locations where they would, and would not, be happy to walk alone after dark. The results suggest that lighting does have a significant impact on pedestrian reassurance as it was mentioned with high frequency as a reason for reassurance, along with access to help and spatial features.