Summary：CANBERRA, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Australians feel safer using public transport at night than they did a decade ago

CANBERRA, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Australians feel safer using public transport at night than they did a decade ago, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data has revealed.

Results of the 2016 Personal Safety Survey (PSS), released by the ABS on Thursday, found that both men and women aged 18 years and older felt safer using public transport after dark than they did in 2005.

Public transport is defined by the ABS as buses, trains, trams, taxis and ferries.

"In 2016, nine in ten men (91 percent) who used public transport alone after dark in the last 12 months felt safe, compared to 84 percent in 2005," William Milne, a member of the ABS' National Centre for Crime and Justice, said.

"Women were less likely to feel safe than men, however the proportion who felt safe also increased from 68 percent in 2005 to 77 percent in 2016."

Victoria opened a new police unit in 2017 dedicated to investigating sexual assault on public transport in response to a dramatic increase in reported incidents.

Authorities in October released data that said there were 350 sexual offences reported on Victoria's public transport network in 2017, up from 249 the previous year.

Other results of the PSS, which were released in November 2017, revealed that 42 percent of men and 37 percent of women surveyed had experienced violence since the age of 15.

That figure consisted of physical violence, which was experienced by 41 percent of men and 31 percent of women, and sexual violence, which 18 percent of women and 4.7 percent of men experienced.