The perception of risk and safety in urban mobility from the perspective of blind people. An exploratory study.

According to the 11th Sustainable Development Goal in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Devolopment adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, cities should aim at being inclusive (as well as green and safe), with a special focus on vulnerable groups. For an inclusive city, improving mobility and the related sense of autonomy for visually impaired people (VIP) is therefore a growing challenge. Unfortunately, there is a lack of data examining how urban mobility is experienced and perceived by these category of road users in terms of safety. Aim of the present research is to investigate the mobility habits and the related perceptions of safety of VIP. 106 VIP from an urban area of Northern Italy took part in a semi-structured telephone interview. The interview explored the use of public transport (PT), the experience with transport services organized by volunteers, the representation of pedestrian walks and the perceptions of risk and safety related to the different modes of travel. The key findings showed that 10% of the sample did not feel safe when walking at all, 30% feel safe only when walking with a companion and the remaining 60% feel safe also when walking independently. Regarding PT use, 20% of respondents do not use it, and among those who do, 52% do not feel safe. The collected results provide useful information for planning the spatial layout of urban environments and developing urban infrastructure and innovative devices and sensors based on the subjective perception of risk and safety, so as to promote inclusive mobility.