An Integrated Decision Support Model for Evaluating Public Transport Quality

Abstract

Big cities suffer from serious complex problems such as air pollution, congestion, and traffic accidents. Developing public transport quality in such cities is considered an efficient remedy to obviate these critical issues. This paper aims to determine the significant supply quality criteria of public transportation. As a methodology, a hybrid Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) combined with the Best Worst Method (BWM) is applied. The proposed model is basically a hierarchy structure with at least a 5 × 5 pairwise comparison matrix or larger. A real-world complex problem was examined to validate the created model (public transport quality improvement). An urban bus transport system in the Jordanian capital city, Amman, was used as a case study; three stakeholder groups (passengers, nonpassengers, and representatives of the local government) participated in the evaluation process. The conventional Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) leads to weak consistency in the case of existing 5 × 5 pairwise comparison matrices or larger, particularly in estimating complex problems. To avoid this critical issue in AHP, we used Best Worst Method (BWM) comparisons, which make the evaluation process easier for decision makers; moreover, it saves survey time and provides more consistency when compared to AHP pairwise comparisons. The model adopted highlighted the most significant service quality criteria that influence urban bus transport systems. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis conducted detected the stability of the criteria ranking in the three levels of the hierarchical structure. Since the proposed AHP–BWM model (which is the sole example of this sort of combination) is independent from the decision attributes, it can be applied to arbitrary hierarchically structured decision problems with a relatively large number of pairwise comparisons.

“More Than a Free Bus Ride”—Exploring Young Adults’ Perceptions of Free Bus Services Using a Qualitative Approach: A Case Study of Penang, Malaysia

“…There have been several studies on the desired quality for bus services [48][49][50][51][52], demonstrating that reliability, punctuality, safety, and access to information are the top desired qualities for bus services. Reliability is one of the primary expectations of passengers [51], as it demonstrates that the service provider is committed and attentive to the outcomes [53].…”

“…Additionally, safety is a paramount indicator for quality bus services and is one of the main concerns of users in selecting their mode of transportation, as some bus drivers tend to drive unsafely (over the speed limit) and disregard traffic laws, consequently repelling passengers from choosing bus services [48]. This notion was echoed in a study in Amman, Jordan, that emphasised users' safety expectations, which may also extend in terms of the approachability to transit stops [52]. Other safety components that should be considered by service providers include the risk of interference from other passengers, competent drivers, bus stop facilities, safe and recognisable bus stops, and the presence of security and police officers in designated areas [49].…”

“…Information such as bus schedules and routes should be provided to the public to increase their use of public transport [48]. The availability of information will provide a sense of transport that will encourage people to use the service [52]. In providing information to bus users, customer services play a crucial role in its delivery.…”

An Integrated Approach of Analytic Hierarchy Process and Triangular Fuzzy Sets for Analyzing the Park-and-Ride Facility Location Problem

“…The AHP method is a little imprecise because the criterion of perception, evaluation, correction, and choice is based on the decision-makers' preference, which has a significant influence on the results. In addition, dependencies between AHP variables often lead to some inconsistency in the weighting of criteria and create results contrary to reality [38]. Duleba and Moslem [39] examined the Pareto optimization of AHP weight vectors.…”

Fuzzy AHP – DEMATEL Methods To Investigate Passengers’ Decision Factors On Using Public City Bus In An Indonesian Region

“…Zapolskytė et al (2020) evaluated the urban mobility system's smartness level using AHP. Moslem et al (2020) conducted a comparative study using the two MCDM methods, namely analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and best-worst method (BWM), to obtain the significant service quality criteria of public transportation. The study involved four criteria at level 1 including service quality, transport quality, tractability, and fare, 14 criteria at level 2, and 10 criteria at level 3.…”