Measuring pedestrian reassurance: comparing evaluations given by solo pedestrians and accompanied groups

While the definition of reassurance highlights walking alone, in many studies of pedestrian reassurance the pedestrian is not alone but accompanied by other test participants and/or the experimenter. A field study of pedestrian reassurance was carried in residential roads with the 122 test participants allocated to conducting their evaluations either solo or accompanied by others. It was found that higher average illuminances were associated with a higher degree of reassurance, and that differences between solo and accompanied responses were small.