PONE-D-22-23849EXPERT PERSPECTIVES OF MODAL SHIFT AND SAFETY IN THE STATE OF VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA)PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Ibrahim,

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PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This paper addresses an interesting issue (or set of them) through a set of semi-structured interviews applied to experts in the field. There are some comments that need your attention, as you will see below:

- Abstract could be structured and clearer, therefore.

- The paper is written in a reader friendly way. However, many typos are spread throughout the manuscript.

- Introduction is not really convincing, as literature review is weak and literature on behavioral contributors to usar safety seems absent from this paper, even though good points in this regard are made in the results.

- The methodological approach is superfluous. Qualitative research does not mean "technically poor" or "less rigorous" research. Please elaborate better on the methods used and the data analysis strategy.

- On the other hand, the results are more organized an present acceptable ledvels of detail, even in absence of the methodological setting of the study in the previous section.

- Discussion does not really discuss key findings, but re-describes and paraphrases most of them. This needs strong revisions from the authors.

- One of my main concerns is the lack of adequacy of the conclusions. As this is a very limited study in terms of coverage and data, my feeling is that what the authors conclude exceeds the actual scope of the data. Therefore, it would be suggestible to carefully revise each one of the conclusive statements, reshaping them if needed, in view of the key limitations of the study.

For instance, authors did well saying that their results "highlight" some expert perceptions. However, three lines below the statement is "data showed public transport modes have relatively lower risk of being seriously injured in road crash"... and this was not data directly related to your study, but it looks like anyway.

- Line 437: This sentence is incomplete.

Reviewer #2: The research aimed to analyse the role of modal shift of road users in improving road safety through semi-structured interviews with experts. This is an interesting topic with important practical applications. However, I consider that some modifications should be made to the manuscript before it is considered for publication.

The introduction should be developed further, setting out in detail the factors involved in modal choice and the implications for mobility and road safety. For example, evidence suggests that perceived safety may be a variable influencing route selection or the choice of a particular mode of transport for travel (e.g. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2020.00042 and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2012.09.009).

Additionally, I recommend including the main hypotheses of the study together with the research objectives.

The methodology and results are very comprehensive. And the discussion is adequate, having contrasted the results with similar research to explain and contextualise the data obtained. I only suggest including measures that can enhance modal shift based on the results and scientific evidence. The development of specific communication campaigns can be an effective tool for this purpose, especially if they are presented together with other complementary measures (e.g. doi: (https://doi.org/10.3390/safety7040066 and https://doi.org/10.5114/jhi.2016.61421).

Reviewer #3: The author failed to illustrate the conclusions with solid data and rigrous logitistics. The sample size of participants of interview is too small to obtain reliable conclusions. The author should expand the sample number and discuss the representativity of the samples.

Ambiguous or uncertain words are used in the results and conclusion parts, such as "somehow", "something" and so on.

The author should use more plots to directly show the results. For example, the percentages of each point of view.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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The role of safety in modal shift choice and safety: A transport expert perspective in the state of Victoria (Australia)

PONE-D-22-23849R1

Dear Dr. Mohammad Nabil Ibrahim

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Iman Aghayan, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: The authors have taken into account the suggestions I provided in my previous review, so I consider that the manuscript is suitable for publication.

Reviewer #3: The authors have made revision according to the suggestions from the reviewers. I recommend this manuscript being accepted

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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