Open Collections

Let’s Take Safer Steps Together

University of British Columbia. AMS Safewalk; University of British Columbia. Campus and Community Planning

This study examines the subjective and dynamic concept of safety within the University of British Columbia Vancouver (UBCV) campus environment, focusing not only on how safety is perceived, but also constructed, and influenced by both institutional mechanisms and socio-spacial relationships. By integrating feminist geographies, intersectionality and placemaking theories, this study challenges traditional views that safety is not just the absence of violence but rather is a fluctuating, relational construct shaped by numerous factors, including infrastructure, identity, cultural and sociopolitical factors. This study uses a mixed-methods approach integrating ethnographic observation, surveys, and interviews, using stratified sampling and random sampling techniques to collect data to reflect the reality of UBC campus demographics. This allows for targeted analysis to understand the spatial and emotional dimensions of safety and unsafety. The study worked in conjunction with the AMS Safewalk program, a non-profit, student-run voluntary service at UBC that provides students walking or driving company to destinations anywhere on campus at night. This allowed for an actual example of campus safety measures and access to large data sets. The research identifies significant differences in safety perceptions amongst different demographic identifiers, further influenced by actors such as lighting, community presence, and institutional trust. The study concludes that while certain areas of the campus are deemed safe due to high pedestrian activity and visibility, others are considered unsafe due to poor lighting and low human traffic, contextualising the importance of placemaking frameworks. The study also provides critiques to improve the effectiveness of current safety interventions and suggests more proactive alterations to UBC campus infrastructure and policy to promote greater feelings of safety at UBC. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Report

eng

2024-07-30

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88807

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/