Role of user's socio-economic and travel characteristics in mode choice between city bus and informal transit services: Lessons from household surveys in Visakhapatnam,India

Informally operated paratransit or Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) systems provide demand responsive transit in many developing countries, often competing with formal public transport systems. Literature on the relative user characteristics of the two modes and their choice behaviour between the systems is limited. This article addresses the gap by presenting a methodology to derive a comprehensive understanding of socio-economic and travel demand characteristics of all transit users in a city. The household survey based data collection and analysis framework is demonstrated for the case of Visakhapatnam, a medium sized Indian city. The variables impacting users' choice between the formal and informal modes were derived through binary logistic regression. It was observed that gender, income and travel time have a significant influence on users' choice between the modes, with waiting time having the maximum impact on mode choice. Therefore, the high frequency services offered by paratransit attract users making shorter trips.     

User satisfaction with specialised transport for disabled in Norway

The aim of this article is to examine factors that are most important for the users' overall satisfaction with specialised transport services for the disabled (STS) in Norway. The article focuses especially on gender differences. We find that the three factors most strongly influencing overall satisfaction with the STS for all users are the size of the area in which the service can be used, the comfort experienced during transport, and the number of trips on which STS can be used. Men's satisfaction with the STS is more strongly influenced by the size of the travel area than is the case for women. The degree to which women are satisfied with the STS is more strongly influenced by the comfort and number of trips than is the case for men. The method used in this article to measure users' overall satisfaction can be valuable for other researchers conducting comparable studies, and our findings may be applied by politicians aiming to design an STS which fulfils the needs of the elderly and disabled.     

Evaluating the relationship between socially (dis)advantaged neighbourhoods and customer satisfaction of bus service in London,U.K.

Affordable and efficient urban public transport is important for the development of a sustainable urban environment. Making sure public transport users are satisfied with the service is a goal many public transport agencies are trying to achieve. Customer satisfaction surveys are often used to monitor customer perceptions of service quality and to determine the relative influence of service attributes on a customer's overall assessment of the service. This study presents a new method to spatially evaluate customer satisfaction survey data through examining satisfaction with bus service across neighbourhoods of varying levels of socio-economic status (SES). Using customer satisfaction survey data collected by Transport for London between 2010 and 2015, multi-level regression modeling is used to estimate the relationship between overall satisfaction and social deprivation of the area in which bus routes were operating. The results indicate lower levels of satisfaction along routes serving low SES neighbourhoods, which appears to be attributed to (1) low satisfaction with service characteristics related to an individual's experience and quality of the bus and (2) conditions of the bus stop and shelter. Findings from this paper shows the importance of including cleanliness and bus internal quality as one of the performance indicators when contracting bus services, to ensure that all customers receive the same quality of service in the region regardless of their SES.     

Traveler satisfaction in rapid rail systems: The case of Istanbul metro

Multifaceted characteristics of urban travel have an impact on the passengers' overall satisfaction with the transport system. In this study, we investigate the interrelationships among traveler satisfaction, travel and traveler characteristics, and service performance in a multimodal network that comprises of a trunk line and its feeder lines. We analyze the factors influencing the choices of access to rail transit stations and the satisfaction of transit travelers with the rapid rail transit systems. We quantitatively study these relationships and demonstrate the complexity of evaluating transit service performance. Since the interrelationships among variables affecting this system are mainly stochastic, we analyze the satisfaction with transit system problem using a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN), which helps capture the causality among variables with inherent uncertainty. Using the case of Istanbul, we employ the BBN as a decision support tool for policy-makers to analyze the rapid rail transit services and determine policies for improving the quality and the level of service to increase the satisfaction with transit system. In the case study, satisfaction with accessibility and access mode variables are found to be more effective variables than total travel time for travel time satisfaction, confirming the significant role of access in multimodal travels.     

The impact of airline service quality on passengers’ behavioral intentions using passenger satisfaction as a mediator

This research study measures the perception of airline service quality based on data collected from Pakistan International Airline (PIA) passengers using SERVQUAL. It investigates the impact of service quality dimensions on passenger's behavioral intentions in presence of mediator (passenger satisfaction). The data is collected through an adopted SERVQUAL instrument from the respondents in the domestic and International waiting lounges of PIA. The data is analysed using reliability statistics, correlation analysis and through hierarchal regression analysis. A systematic random sampling technique is used to analyze the study sample and PROCESS macros was used to run mediation analysis. The results reveals that passenger's satisfaction mediates the relationship between airline service quality and behavioral intentions. Practically, PIA should not only improve on Service Quality but should build up quality consciousness among on ground and inflight employees; pay attention to reliable factors and establish customer goodwill through enhanced services; regard reliability factors and enhance employee accomplishment. Implications of these results for management policy and practice are highlighted as guidelines. PIA managers can now better understand the importance of service quality and its long-term benefits in the form of customer loyalty.     

Text mining approach to explore dimensions of airline customer satisfaction using online customer reviews

The airline industry operates in a highly competitive market, in which achieving and maintaining a high level of passenger satisfaction is seen as a key competitive advantage. This study presents a novel framework for measuring customer satisfaction in the airline industry. Using text mining methods we explore Online Customer Reviews (OCRs) to provide guidelines for airlines companies to improve in competitiveness. We analyze a database of more than 55,000 OCRs, covering over 400 airlines and passengers from 170 countries. Using a Latent Dirichlet Allocation model we identified 27 dimensions of satisfaction described by 882 adjectives. Dimensions and adjectives were used to predict airline recommendation by customers, resulting in an accuracy of 79.95%. The most relevant dimensions for airlines' recommendation prediction were calculated. OCRs were stratified according to several variables. Of those, type of passenger impacted the least on the number of dimensions of customer satisfaction, while type of cabin flown impacted the most. Observing results in different publication years we showed airline customer trends through time. Our method showed sensitiveness to identify variations in dimensions distribution according to different passenger characteristics and preferences. Practical implications are that airline service providers aiming at maximizing customer satisfaction should focus their efforts on (i) customer service to first class passengers, (ii) comfort to premium economy passengers, and (iii) checking luggage and waiting time to economy class travelers. Regression analysis revealed cabin staff, onboard service and value for money as top three dimensions of satisfaction to predict the recommendation of airlines. Designing services that excel in those dimensions is likely to improve the company's performance with customers.     

Accessibility measurements in São Paulo,Rio de Janeiro,Curitiba and Recife,Brazil

Increasing attention is given to public transport services in cities of the Global South as a tool to enhance social inclusion and support economic development. Against this background, developing and evaluating indicators that quantify the distribution of public transport services from a social equity perspective is essential. The aim of the study is, therefore, to assess the equity of public transport services in four metropolitan regions in Brazil (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Recife) with two commonly used indicators of public transport provision. The first indicator measures proximity to rapid transit infrastructure (bus rapid transit, light rail and heavy rail stops with high frequency throughout the day), and the second measures accessibility to jobs by public transport. While simple indicators of proximity to public transport stops are most commonly used given their ease of operationalization and communication, accessibility to job indicators are more representative of the benefits provided to individuals by the public transport network. Combining these two indicators in one study provides a quantitative assessment of the socio-spatial distribution of public transport services in four large metropolitan areas in Brazil and the results demonstrate that lower-income households are disadvantaged in terms of public transport services in all four metropolitan areas. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of quantifying accessibility by public transport, in addition to proximity to rapid transit, and thereby sheds light on the importance of developing openly available public transport schedules and geographic data. This study is of relevance to planners and researchers wishing to measure and evaluate public transport equity in the Global South.     

Investigating users' travel behaviours and perceptions of single-corridor BRT: Lessons from Lahore

Despite the global popularity of bus rapid transit (BRT) in last couple of decades, there is limited empirical evidence in the rapidly urbanizing developing countries regarding corridor-wide users' typical travel characteristics and perceptions of the system attributes. The factors affecting BRT users' (dis)satisfaction are also often disregarded, given less priority than needed, or delayed till issues become more difficult and costlier to manage. Although on a rise, currently only ~10% of BRT systems worldwide are in lower-middle-income and low-income countries, which also supports the need to effectively address BRT passengers' mobility issues in such countries with cramped resources, contributing towards more sustainable urban mass transit systems. As major share of BRTs worldwide are single-corridors (~63%), this study investigates the above stated gaps using case of such BRT in the megacity of Lahore, Pakistan via on-site structured interview surveys using intercept method from BRT users along all stations of the corridor. Typical travel characteristics, correlations and cross-comparisons of sample demographics with mobility attributes, underlying (dis)similar themed factors ensuring internal consistency, and rankings of (dis)satisfactions regarding service attributes were evaluated using combination of statistical methods. Visual comparisons of factors in 2D and 3D rotated space were also explored. Results revealed differences in travel characteristics of BRT users for various demographics; convergence of eight factors from twenty-two service quality attributes; spectrum of highest, average and lowest ranked attributes; and inter-spatial relationship of service quality attributes based on the factors contributing relatively more variation. The overarching findings provide useful insights for transportation practitioners, policy makers and could also contribute towards updating BRT guidelines by incorporating the needs and requirements of BRT users in the developing countries.     

Investigating the Impact of SERVQUAL Dimensions on Customer Satisfaction: The Lessons Learnt from Serbian Travel Agencies

Despite the rise of online travel booking services, it seems that traditional travel agencies remain an intractable part in the process of making travel arrangements for most travelers. Nevertheless, the question remains as to what triggers travelers' satisfaction with travel agencies. In order to explore this, we focused on Serbian travel agencies and researched the impact of the five individual SERVQUAL dimensions on travelers' satisfaction. Results revealed that four SERVQUAL dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, empathy and tangibility) had a significant influence on customer satisfaction. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

北京市利用国铁资源发展都市圈市郊铁路构想研究

目前北京市交通拥堵日益严峻,对于国铁资源的利用方面,北京已经开行了3条市郊铁路,然而北京的国铁系统仍然没有为大规模的都市圈通勤需求提供应有的服务,存在空间和时间格局上的失配问题。通过北京与东京都市圈的城市交通特征和交通成本的比较分析,在借鉴东京国铁“五方面作战”的经验基础上,从顶层设计、“1+7”线路改造战略布局和运营管理等方面,提出北京市利用国铁资源发展都市圈市郊铁路构想,为北京市利用国铁资源发展都市圈市郊铁路提供参考依据。     

Sustainability evaluation of rapid routes for buses with a network DEA model

This study establishes a network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to evaluate the sustainability of public transportation services targeting rapid routes for buses in the Seoul metropolitan area. A network DEA-based optimization model is formulated to evaluate the sustainability of the public transportation service. By considering public transportation services from both the operators’ and users’ perspectives, this model produces results that reflect the interaction of three sustainable transport service properties, i.e., efficiency, equity, and environmental impacts. It is identified that the expansion of median bus lanes and the conversion of conventional buses into compressed natural gas vehicles could improve the sustainability of the public transportation services in the Seoul metropolitan area. Some limitations and future research agenda also are presented.     

Behavioral intentions of public transit passengers—The roles of service quality,perceived value,satisfaction and involvement

Understanding the behavioral intentions of public transit passengers is important, because customer loyalty is seen as a prime determinant of long-term financial performance. This study highlights such behavioral intentions and explores the relationships between passenger behavioral intentions and the various factors that affect them. Apart from the factors recognized by past studies, such as service quality, perceived value, and satisfaction, this study addresses the importance of the involvement of public transit services in passenger behavioral intentions. By using passenger survey data from the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (KMRT), a newly operating public transit system in Taiwan, we apply the structural equation modeling technique to analyze the conceptualized relationship model. The findings reveal that all causal relationships are statistically significant. Managerial implications are discussed.     

Evaluating the equity implications of ridehailing through a multi-modal accessibility framework

In rapidly-growing metropolitan regions, it is crucial that transportation-related policies and infrastructure are designed to ensure that everyone can participate equitably in economic, social, and civil opportunities. Ridehailing services are touted to improve mobility options, but there is scant research that incorporates this mode within an accessibility framework. This paper employs a generalized cost measure in a multi-modal accessibility framework, namely Access Profile Analysis, to assess the role of ridehailing in providing job access to historically under-resourced parts of Toronto, Canada, referred to by the city as Neighborhood Improvement Areas (NIAs). Ridehailing is analyzed both as a mode of commute and as a feeder to the transit network (a first-mile solution). The results indicate that there are two main determinants of the extent to which ridehailing provides additional accessibility over transit: the transit level of service at the origin zone and the zone's proximity to employment opportunities. The ridehailing mode is shown to increase accessibility especially to closer destinations (jobs), with the highest improvement seen in the city's inner suburbs. On the other hand, integrating ridehailing with public transit does little to improve access to jobs. Compared to the rest of the city, NIAs experience a higher accessibility improvement from ridehailing alone, but not from its integration with transit. Nonetheless, job accessibility remains lower in NIAs than in other areas – even after the introduction of ridehailing.     

Changing student mobility behaviour under financial crisis: Lessons from a case study in the Oporto University

This paper explores how the commuting patterns of university students have changed in the face of the financial crisis that has affected Portugal in 2008. In this research, we focus on the mobility behaviour of students from the Faculty of Engineering of Oporto University (FEUP). Based on two similar surveys carried out in 2006 and 2012, i.e. before and during times of financial crisis, and macrosocial data from the Portuguese Census and from the metropolitan public transport system, we provide detailed accounts of commuting patterns, including main motivations, barriers, and discuss the influence of considering different scales of analysis of the built-environment. The results show a general trend to reduce the students' costs of commuting by living with their families and using more often public transports. Our results also suggest an increasing level of inequality towards mobility, reinforced by austerity policies, which may lead to undesirable travel behaviours in the future. Although the overall evolution of students' travel behaviour points towards greater sustainability, the identified changes also suggest social-spatial injustices.     

Shopmobility at the millennium: `Enabling' access in town centres

Shopmobility provides a vital link in the community transport chain. It has been designed to secure for mobility-impaired people equality of access to shopping facilities and `barrier-free' movement within town centres. This agenda is important in the UK given the growing incidence of age-related disability, the spread of pedestrianisation to smaller shopping centres, and publicised development of wayfinding technologies to help disabled people navigate in unfamiliar surroundings. The recent millennium audit of Shopmobility schemes furnishes a national data-base highlighting the demand for services, operating practices in contrasting built-environments, stockholding of equipment, financial management and planning intentions. This report overviews the key findings of that audit within the context of a government commitment to an `inclusionary' and integrated transport policy. It concludes that an adequate and secure stream of financial support is essential for the sustained development of Shopmobility in local contexts, and recommends that Local Transport Plans should ensure that Shopmobility schemes are effectively linked to community and public transport services, and accessible car parking provision for disabled motorists.     

Are they telling the truth? Revealing hidden traits of satisfaction with a public bike-sharing service

Public bike-sharing systems (BSSs) are an emerging mode of transportation introduced by municipalities to solve congestion problems in metropolitan areas, especially when integrated with other types of transportation. In the last years, the number of public bike-sharing services has been constantly on the rise all over the world, and generally the overall satisfaction with them is high. However, satisfaction with public services is driven by mechanisms that can differ from those in the private sector. It is important to establish to what extent a high satisfaction is genuine or simply ephemeral. Even “old” public services (like public transportation) become “gold” when accompanied by the introduction of new technologies. In this paper we analyze this phenomenon using data from a satisfaction web-survey conducted among customers of the public BSS “BikeMi” in Milan, Italy, in a period when mobile technologies have been introduced to speed up the service. On analyzing the responses to satisfaction questions using simple summary statistics, the level of satisfaction resulted very high. However, our aim was to look for potential “darker” sides of the service by detecting possible hidden satisfaction components. For this purpose, we used the Nonlinear Principal Components Analysis, which is particularly powerful in this context. A simple textual analysis was also performed as a validating test. Results from our analysis indicated that satisfaction is flawed by a set of factors like the mechanics of the bikes, the picking and dropping system, and the apps used to organize the service. Less concern was detected for more general aspects of the service.     

Identifying attributes of public transport services for urban tourists: A data-mining method

The current work focuses on Quality of Service (QoS) of Public Transport (PT) attributes in urban tourist destinations. In particular, we aim to reveal which attributes are most significant for tourists prior to their arrival at their destination, as reflected in questions posted in TripAdvisor Question and Answer forums, a widely used social media platform.We used a data-mining method to classify questions into categories relevant to QoS, using a sample of 8905 items posted between 2005 and 2018 in TripAdvisor forums for seven urban destinations in the United States and Western Europe. We found four PT-QoS attributes: Pricing and ticketing, Accessibility, Trip duration, and Service availability (hours of operation and frequency). These attributes have similar relative significance for all destinations, origins, seasons, and years we checked. Hence, they can help service operators and policymakers to understand tourists' preferences and to adjust PT services accordingly.     

Spatial disparity of income-weighted accessibility in Brazilian Cities: Application of a Google Maps API

Equity in public transit ridership has attracted the attention of planning authorities as a mechanism to tackle social exclusion. The association of accessibility indexing with different income groups is fundamental to analyses of socio-spatial inequalities and identifying gaps in public transit services. However, few studies have addressed accessibility inequalities in medium-sized cities of the global South. This paper aims to identify spatial gaps in public transit service in seven medium-sized Brazilian cities by analyzing the relative accessibility of public transit and private automobiles for travel to central business districts (CBDs), which are primary employment and service centers. Demographic and socioeconomic data on the seven cities were extracted from the country's 2010 population census. To measure accessibility to CBDs, a Google Maps application programming interface was used to produce realistic estimates of travel times for public transit and private automobiles over different time periods. This method is more accurate than traditional accessibility calculation methods and provides real-time information on traffic conditions, such as speed limits, traffic jams, and waiting times. The study found significant intra-regional differences in accessibility to CBDs by public transit and private automobiles, providing a scientific basis to optimize the socio-spatial distribution of public transit services in seven cities in five different regions of Brazil.     

Optimizing transit maintenance and rehabilitation to support human development and sustainability: A case study of Costa Rica’s railroad network

Public transportation plays a critical role in improving human development and consequently the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by United Nations. Convenient and efficient transit enable inhabitants to reach labor markets, access social support facilities as well as health and education services. This study develops a decision-making support framework for transit agencies to select optimum maintenance, rehabilitation, and upgrade alternatives to accomplish good levels of service and improve human development and sustainability indexes. A case study of Costa Rica’s great metropolitan area is used to illustrate the study with various budget scenarios. The results show that the proposed system can accomplish significant improvements on both level of service and human development. It is also confirmed that the explicit consideration of human development and sustainability made a significant difference as compared to the classical approach, which only considers the level of service (LOS). The proposed model could be used by other public transit systems.