Safety on the tube

Published on 2 August 2008 in , , , , , ,

Every now and then you come across some statements that are quite interesting. One that caught my eye today is from the British Transport Police:

While passenger perceptions of safety while travelling on the Underground and DLR are high, we strive to always increase this through highly visible Neighbourhood policing.

British Transport Police policing plan for London Underground/DLR, 2008/2009

Apparently, according to the same document, 80% of us feel safe at London Underground stations, and 82% of us on London Underground trains.

Actually the tube has some way to go because on the DLR a whopping 98% of us feel safe on stations and on trains. Which is actually really interesting when you take into account the fact that most DLR stations are mostly unmanned and is a contrast to Ken Livingstone’s plans to increase staff presence to make things safer on the London Overground. Not saying stations shouldn’t have a staff presence, but the BTP’s figures just go to show that you don’t necessarily need a staff presence to feel safe.

Either way 80% of people feeling pretty good on the tube feels pretty good to me. It’s not as good as it could be, but hey, that’s pretty good. The figures also seem slightly at odds with Boris Johnson’s continued emphasis on safety on public transport which has again and again cropped up in his short time in the Mayorhood. And that raises an interesting question for next years figures – will a mayor who seems to be constantly harking on about making the tube safer, actually us think that there’s more problems than there actually are, and therefore make people feel less safe?

We’ll see next year I guess.