Between protection and pragmatism: passenger transport security and public value trade-offs

With ongoing global concern about terrorism, security at passenger transport infrastructures is now both expected and accepted by the traveling public. It is clear, however, that security arrangements differ greatly from place to place, and from mode to mode. This article proposes a theoretical framework, based on public values theory, to explain why passenger transport security arrangements look as they do, and why they differ in their intensity and technological sophistication. In light the of three historical case studies, we posit that security arrangements continually change as a result of the constant reprioritization of public values pertaining to passenger transport infrastructure.