The underlying effect of public transport reliability on users’ satisfaction

Abstract

Service reliability has an important impact on the satisfaction stated by public transport users with the service they receive. The main source of unreliability is found in headway variance, which also affects waiting times and distributes passengers unevenly across vehicles. However, it is still unclear how headway irregularity, with its impact in waiting, crowdedness and reliability, affect travellers' service satisfaction. Different stated preference studies have identified nonlinear impacts produced by overcrowding. However, none of these studies is directly related to users' satisfaction evaluation. In this study, we investigate the existence of this non-linearity in users' satisfaction caused by both the crowding level and the number of denied boardings through a post-service satisfaction survey of bus and metro users. An Ordered Logit Model was estimated, accounting for sample heteroscedasticity and preference heterogeneity. Overall, there is a significant and negative perception of the bus mode, keeping all other attributes equal. For users under 35 years old, comfort experienced almost always plays an important role in service satisfaction, while for those over 35 years old women are significantly more sensitive to this attribute. Most important, crowding has a negative and non-linear impact on how passengers evaluate their travel satisfaction. Using a Likert-type scale, this curve is convex. This relationship between crowding and satisfaction might bias service planning and delivery if performance indicators associated to service are not properly weighted by the number of passengers served. Improving level of service indicators in this direction might provide public transport agencies a clearer and more accurate perception of the actual users' experience.

An integrated grey AHP-MOORA model for ameliorating public transport service quality

“…The second most significant main criteria were Reliability (0.255). In general, the passengers want to get a reliable service [20,53]. In Budapest, using public bus system is a part the passengers' daily life to reach their destination.…”

“…The supply quality criteria of public transport system have been thoroughly investigated in the recent years. A specific attention has been paid to on-board physical and mental comfort [1,18,31,42], system reliability [20,27,53], system accessibility [45,50], safety at stops [13,26] and safety on-board [8,48].…”

“…The perceived quality of a public transport service is the only target information for operating companies and this quality depends on several factors related to the service itself, such as, reliability [53], frequency [34], punctuality [15] and factors related to terminals and vehicles, such as, cleanliness [61], safety [14], comfort [9].…”

A paradox of traffic and extra cars in a city as a collective behaviour

“…A survey conducted in Auckland shows that commuting control and high travel time reliability are key factors in choosing cycling as the mode of transportation [ 66 ]. In the case of public transport, headway regularity has a positive effect on the satisfaction of users [ 67 ]. Also, it has been found that the built environment (population density, mixed land use, wide sidewalks, aesthetics and the presence of public transport facilities) promotes walking [ 68 , 69 ], and that providing information to travellers on the social costs associated with the alternatives (travel time or greenhouse gas emissions), can influence their decisions towards a more social route or mode of transportation [ 70 , 71 ].…”

Passenger Satisfaction Evaluation of Public Transportation Using Pythagorean Fuzzy MULTIMOORA Method under Large Group Environment

“…Allen et al [8] designed a full SEM cause multiple indicator model to analyze the effect of critical incidents on public transport satisfaction based on the survey data in the hinterland of Milan. Soza-Parra et al [37] investigated the underlying effect of public transport reliability on users' satisfaction through a post-service satisfaction survey of bus and metro users. Quddus et al [38] examined the relationship between bus service quality and its influencing factors in Dhaka using a customer satisfaction survey and discrete choice models.…”