The Economic Effects of Safe Transportation in Developing Cities

Last registered on May 27, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Economic Effects of Safe Transportation in Developing Cities
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016039
Initial registration date
May 20, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
May 27, 2025, 6:39 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Daniela Paz Cruzat
Affiliation
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Isabel Hincapie Correa
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-09-01
End date
2026-09-01
Keywords
Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Gender, Labor
Additional Keywords
Transportation
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Globally, violence in transport and public spaces, such as sexual harassment, represents one
of the most significant mobility barriers affecting women disproportionately more than men.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO (2017)), limited access to and
safety of transportation is estimated to be the greatest obstacle to women’s participation in
the labor market in developing countries, reducing their participation probability by 16.5%.
Lack of safe transport can translate into girls missing schools, women not looking for jobs
far away from home, giving up their jobs, or being unable to access health or childcare services.
Governments across the world are proposing different programs to address mobility
challenges. However, the main challenge is finding scalable programs that can be replicated
in developing cities worldwide.

The government of Chile implemented a novel program to enhance women’s safety in the
public transportation system. The initiative, called "Safe Bus Stops," upgrades bus stop
infrastructure to allow women to report assaults or situations in which they feel unsafe.
Improvements include: 1) security cameras, 2) an SOS button connected to the nearest
police station, 3) enhanced lighting, and 4) a digital panel providing real-time information
about upcoming buses, among other features. Since September 2023, 360 bus stops have
been upgraded under this program.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hincapie Correa, Isabel and Daniela Paz Cruzat. 2025. "The Economic Effects of Safe Transportation in Developing Cities." AEA RCT Registry. May 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16039-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The government of Chile implemented a novel program to enhance women’s safety in the public transportation system. The initiative, called "Safe Bus Stops," upgrades bus stop infrastructure to allow individuals to report assaults or situations in which they feel unsafe.

Intervention Start Date
2023-12-01
Intervention End Date
2026-01-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Administrative data on commuting decisions and crime. We will also measure being exposed to certain situations (such as sexual harassment) in our survey.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Commuting decisions at the individual and stop level: stop demand, time in which it is used (morning vs afternoon), share of use by demographic characteristics, among others using daily transaction data
Crime: nr of total crimes and by type of crime (homicide, robbery, etc) at different buffer zones
Being a victim or seeing someone being the victim of certain situation and beliefs about the quality of the system and its improvement

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Other outcomes related to 1.general search and willingness to commute,, 2.labor participation, 3.health
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Other outcomes such as job search, labor participation, workplace amenities and location, wages. We will also try to understand how mothers could be differentially impacted (interaction with childcare services, among others). Finally we will measure the impact on health outcomes such as number of visits to different types of hospitals.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
RCT at the bus stop level. We stratified by municipality and distance from the stop to hospitals, schools, and municipalities.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in stata
Randomization Unit
Bus stop
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2,816 stops
Sample size: planned number of observations
2,816 stops
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
On average, 275 people use a stop per day. We also did a baseline survey were we interviewed 1,400 individuals in approx. 300 stops.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Berkeley Committee for Protection of Human Subjects Office for Protection of Human Subjects
IRB Approval Date
2023-07-03
IRB Approval Number
2023-05-16390
Analysis Plan