Transport and Society: Factors of Citizens' Trust in Moscow Public Transport

Public transport is not only a technical system, but also a significant social institution. For a comprehensive study, it must be viewed through the lens of sociological theory, which suggests that one of the integral parts of the successful work of a social institution is the level of people’s trust in it. The concept of trust in public transport began to be developed with the beginning of the pandemic, when the level of trust began to fall due to the epidemiological situation. This paper attempts to determine factors of trust in public transport using the example of the Moscow transport system. Based on the concept, methodology and survey data (N=616) obtained at the previous stage of the study, regression models were built in this work to determine predictors of trust in public transport. Trust in public transport was found to be most influenced by education level and income, as well as age and gender, but to a lesser extent. A classification of public transport users was also developed, which made it possible to offer practical recommendations for improving the public transport system for each of the resulting groups according to their requests and needs. This is necessary to motivate citizens to switch from private cars to public transport, which will help solve the main problems of urban mobility.