Optimal Strategies for Elderly Public Transport Service Based on Impact-Asymmetry Analysis: A Case Study of Harbin

Abstract

The difficulty of travel for the elderly is a challenge for urban management. Quantifying the satisfaction of public transport services from the perspective of the elderly is a people-oriented scientific research method. Based on the survey data of 2019 and 2020 and by selecting the interview data of people over retirement age before analyzing the non-linear relationship between bus service elements and elderly satisfaction by the impact-asymmetry analysis and gradient boosting decision trees, the optimization strategy of ground public transportation for the elderly in Harbin was obtained. The results show that the following five factors have the greatest impact on overall satisfaction, namely, site broadcasting, complaint handling, awning facilities, driver driving habits, and the punctuality of bus operation. Among them, “awning,” the “punctuality of bus operation,” and “drivers’ driving habits” should be given priority to improve. The conclusion of this study provides a theoretical basis for the accurate optimization of public transport services.

Identifying key elements for user satisfaction of bike-sharing systems: a combination of direct and indirect evaluations

“…Although IAA generates a more granular classification, the factors are an extension of the 3FT since the first two are basic factors and the last two are excitement factors. Following this research line, several studies applied IAA and gradient boosting decision threes (GBDT) to examine a variety of user satisfaction topics, such as, elderly and public transport (Lan et al 2022), bus and BRT riders (Fang et al 2021;Wu et al, 2020) and neighborhood and urban planning (Cao et al 2020;Dong et al 2019). We, aware of the limitation of using the 3FT alone, mixed implicit and explicit importance with attribute performance to graphically identify attributes' relationship with satisfaction.…”

“…The axes intersection is defined by the average values of the implicit and explicit importance. A newer research line, based on the principles of the 3FT, applies the Impact-Asymmetry Analysis (IAA) for an accurate evaluation of non-linear effects (Cao et al 2020;Dong et al 2019;Fang et al 2021;Lan et al 2022;Wu et al, 2020). These papers identify the most influential factors on user satisfaction, accounting for the non-linear relationships.…”

Exploring Public Space Satisfaction in Old Residential Areas Based on Impact-Asymmetry Analysis

“…In Table 4 are the relative impact values of environmental factors in public space, with values exceeding 2% considered as relatively important factors [31,34,37,38]. Ultimately, the analysis encompassed sixteen public space factors found in old residential areas.…”

“…Recent studies determined 0.2 and −0.2 as thresholds to differentiate linear effects from nonlinear ones [18,30,31,35]. Based on the threshold used by Lee et al [37][38][39], the present study finally defines attribute categories as follows: delighters (IA index ≥ 0.7), satisfiers (0.7 > IA index > 0.2), hybrids (0.2 ≥ IA index ≥ −0.2), dissatisfiers (−0.2 > IA index > −0.7), and frustrators (IA index ≤ −0.7), which are shown in Table 5. In view of the IA index, most environmental factors of public space share a nonlinear influence on the overall satisfaction of residents, and only the factor of roadway width has a linear relationship.…”

“…In view of the IA index, most environmental factors of public space share a nonlinear influence on the overall satisfaction of residents, and only the factor of roadway width has a linear relationship. According to the previous research on IAA [37][38][39], the priorities for improvement should comprehensively consider the attribute, influence scope, and performance of the factors. The average satisfaction value of 42 factors covering the public space environment is used as a reference point to measure the performance of each factor at present.…”