A comparison of factors influencing the safety of pedestrians accessing bus stops in countries of differing income levels

•Bus travel is relatively safe, but bus stop access can be risky for pedestrians.•There is limited research on pedestrian safety at bus stops in LMICs.•User, bus stop, and road characteristics are associated with pedestrian safety.•Poor road crash data often requires the use of surrogate safety measures.•Subjective safety of pedestrians at bus stops has received little attention. Pedestrian fatalities comprise a quarter of all traffic deaths in Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The use of safer modes of transport such as buses can reduce road trauma as well as air pollution and traffic congestion. Although travelling by bus is safer than most other modes, accessing bus stops can be risky for pedestrians. This paper systematically reviews factors contributing to the safety of pedestrians near bus stops in countries of differing income levels. The review included forty-one studies from high (20), upper-middle (13) and lower-middle income countries (8) during the last two decades. The earliest research was conducted in high-income countries (HICs), but research has spread in the last decade. The factors influencing pedestrian safety fell into three groups: (a) characteristics of road users, (b) characteristics of bus stops and (c) characteristics of the road traffic environment. Pedestrians near bus stops are frequently exposed to a high risk of collisions and fatalities due to factors such as unsafe pedestrian behaviours (e.g., hurrying to cross the road), lack of bus stop amenities such as safe footpaths, high traffic speeds and traffic volumes, multiple lanes, and roadside hazards (e.g., parked cars obscuring pedestrians). Road crash statistics are commonly used to identify unsafe bus stops in HICs but the unavailability and unreliability of data have prevented more widespread use in LMICs. Future research is recommended to focus on surrogate safety measures to identify hazardous bus stops for pedestrians.