Understanding people’s perceptions of cleanliness, cleaning methods and the risks of COVID19 infection on public transport

Abstract

People’s perceptions of cleanliness on public transport vary. Following the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic, people became afraid of becoming infected on public transport. With this, people’s attitudes changed. People are now extremely interested in the hygiene level on public transport as they wish to protect themselves from becoming infected. Their confidence in the cleaning method used is reflected in their behaviour. This project will focus on understanding people’s behaviours and perceptions on public transport. These are considered these under three main themes: perceptions of cleanliness, perceptions of cleaning methods, and perception of risk of becoming infected by COVID19 on public transport. The project is divided into two studies. The first study involves collecting information about the different cleaning methods used around the world for disinfecting against COVID19 on public transport. This was done through research in published academic papers and in organisational reports. Countries around the world have used different methods and technologies in an attempt to disinfect against the virus. These methods include the use of ultraviolet light, dry steam, robots, chemical spraying, and manual cleaning by staff. Moreover, different chemicals and detergents have been used at different concentrations as considered effective to inactivate the virus. In the second study, a pilot questionnaire is developed that seeks to understand people’s perceptions of cleanliness and risk of COVID19 on public transport. The second study was inspired by the first study’s results showing the wide range of cleaning methods applied on public transport around the world. The aim of the second study is to develop a well-designed questionnaire that contains the main questions required to understand people’s perceptions of cleanliness, of cleaning methods, and of the risk of being infected by COVID19. This questionnaire can be applied to different public transport systems with the aim of adding questions that will apply in a particular situation. The questionnaire has gone through a number of stages during its development. In the first stage, the topics and sub-topics to be covered were determined. The three main topic areas are people’s perceptions of cleanliness, different cleaning methods with people’s perception about them and their confidence in them, and their perceptions of the risk of being infected by different aspects of public transport, such as touching surfaces. After determining the topics to be covered, a flow chart was developed to track the questionnaire’s development. Biases and dependent answers were identified and reduced. Once the questionnaire was completed, ethical approval was received and the questionnaire was distributed to the public using Microsoft Forms through a social application. Sixty-one responses were received. The sample was small but it was sufficient to give indicative results and to guide future development of the questionnaire. Moreover, the participants’ answers showed that the questionnaire was easy to use, and that the text was clear and easy to understand. The overall aim of this study is to understand people’s attitudes towards cleanliness on public transport and thereby help design environments that will decrease risk and increase health. Furthermore, our results will help in future decision making. The questionnaire results indicate that people have varying levels of trust in the different methods of cleaning with the highest confidence going to the spraying method.