Personal safety of passengers during the first phase COVID-19 pandemic in the opinion of public transport drivers in Krakow

The Covid-19 pandemic impact all public spheres of city inhabitants' lives, also changed the conditions of traveling by public transport, especially in the field of personal passenger safety. The introduced limits on people in public transport vehicles and the need to maintain social distancing or cover the mouth and nose in a public transport vehicle - for various reasons - have been met with different understanding by users. The question then arose: are passengers actually complying with the rules of the pandemic when traveling by tram or bus? The paper attempts to assess the behavior of passengers, based on the opinions of people who observe these behaviors in their daily work, driving public transport vehicles. For this purpose, a survey was carried out among bus and tram drivers of the main public transport operator in Krakow. On the basis of 334 fulfilled questionnaires, it was found that - according to the drivers - passengers often quite freely approach the limits of people in vehicles, and often do not respect the social distancing, especially when alighting and boarding. However, what is optimistic, the drivers highly assessed their own safety when performing their official duties - which is extremely important in the context of ensuring the continuity of public transport during a pandemic. Only 10% of drivers considered that the current solutions to protect passengers (and drivers themselves) are sufficient, therefore they called for an increase in the scope of protective measures: an increase in the number of public transport courses (to keep existing passengers), the obligatory use of protective masks (instead of ineffective loosely obligation to cover the face and nose), or the introduction of closed driver cabins in buses (as in trams). The obtained research results are of a cognitive nature, they can be a supplement to the travel studies at this specific time. They can also provide support in taking action in the case of a return of the Covid-19 pandemic or similar incidents in the future. © 2021 Warsaw University of Technology. All rights reserved.