No abstract

Understanding the motivators of travel satisfaction is essential for designing attractive public transport systems. This study investigates the key drivers of satisfaction with public transport and their relationship with travel frequency and willingness to recommend public transport to others, hence contributing specifically by analysing the influence of social norms in travel use. A large-scale passenger satisfaction survey collected in six European cities and structural equation modelling validates the framework across different travel cultures. The study found that travel satisfaction is positively related to i) accessibility measures, e.g. extent of network coverage, travel speed and service frequency, ii) perceived costs, e.g. reasonable ticket prices, and iii) norms, i.e. perceived societal and environmental importance of public transport. These findings were consistent across all six cities and across different user types based on use frequency of public transport and private car. Specifically, the willingness to recommend public transport to others was significantly related to public transport use at a similar level as overall satisfaction. Finally, the study found significant differences in satisfaction across respondents' socio-economic characteristics as young respondents and students were less satisfied with service quality than middle-aged and elderly respondents despite more frequent use. This suggests structural problems in public transport because travel habits formed in early life shape travel behaviour throughout life. Hence, it is important to address the needs of these user groups to ensure public transport ridership in the future. The results bear important policy implications for planners in not only focusing on traditional measures for optimising operations, but also branding public transport as an environmentally and socially important transport mode in metropolitan areas.

Cities worldwide are implementing modern transit systems to improve mobility in the increasingly congested metropolitan areas. Despite much research on the effects of such systems, a comparison of effects across transit modes and countries has not been studied comprehensively. This paper fills this gap in the literature by reviewing and comparing the effects obtained by 86 transit systems around the world including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Light Rail Transit (LRT), metro, and heavy-rail transit systems. The analysis is twofold by analysing i) the direct operational effects related to travel time, ridership, and modal shifts, and ii) the indirect strategic effects in terms of effects on property values and urban development. The review confirms the existing literature suggesting that BRT can attract many passengers if travel time reductions are significantly high. This leads to attractive areas surrounding the transit line with increasing property values. Such effects are traditionally associated with attractive rail-based public transport systems. However, a statistical comparison of 41 systems did not show significant deviations between effects on property values resulting from BRT, LRT, and metro systems, respectively. Hence, this paper indicates that large strategic effects can be obtained by implementing BRT systems at a much lower cost.

No abstract

 Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.  You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain  You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.