Model of personal attitudes towards transit service quality

Abstract

SUMMARYThis paper presents a critical investigation of reasons for using transit by residents of the City of Calgary, Canada. Reasons for using transit are expressed as functions of people's perceptions and attitudes towards transit service quality and attributes. A multinomial logit model combined with latent variable models is developed to capture unobserved latent variables in defining perceptions and attitudes. Using data from a transit customer satisfaction survey conducted in 2007 by Calgary Transit, this approach models the reasons for choosing transit and tests the significance of two individual specific latent variables: perceptions of 'reliability and convenience' and 'ride comfort'. Many behavioural details are revealed that have important policy implications. Most importantly, it is found that the people of Calgary value 'reliability and convenience' over 'ride comfort'. As for policy implications of the findings, it is clear that improving the connectivity of train service, reducing multimodal transfers, and increasing dedicated right-of-ways for transit would effectively increase transit ridership in Calgary. Copyright Understanding the public's attitudes, perceptions and knowledge in relation to transport measures is important for the formulation and monitoring of transportation policies. Demand for an efficient transit system in any urban area stems from mobility, environmental and energy objectives. Measurements of a transit system's service quality is a challenging research theme and of great importance to the transit service providers and regulatory agencies [1]. The actual performance of a transit system should be considered from the transit users' perspective [2]; and, although there has been demand for analysing transit service quality based on how the users perceive it [3], very few studies truly concentrate on attitudes or psychological factors behind the users' perceptions of transit service quality. Attitude towards transit is an important element influencing people to choose transit in our autooriented North American cities. Attitude, often expressed as perception, is an abstract and psychological term and plays the major role in governing behaviour and defining action [4]. Actions towards transit usage can be traced back to the users' perceptions of the service quality of a transit system. In order to influence peoples' actions in terms of transit over automobile usage, it is germane that we understand the factors influencing formation of attitudes or perceptions towards transit, because people's attitudes are reflected in their travel related actions [5]. This paper follows this principle of investigation in order to identify the factors influencing transit modal share. However, other than focusing on a conventional mode choice model of transit modal share, we have taken a different approach. JOURNAL OF ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION

Modelling commuting mode choice with explicit consideration of carpool in the choice set formation

“…In this article we used the Halton sequence and 500 iterations for the simulation estimation. The model was estimated by codes written in GAUSS using the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) algorithm (Aptech Systems 2008; Habib et al 2010). The standard errors of the parameters were calculated using the inverse of the Hessian procedure.…”

Modelling Flyover Induced Travel Demand in Dhaka, Bangladesh

“…The study found that people's attitude and experience towards service quality of modes, car parking space, and cost influence the transport mode choice decision. A similar finding was found by other researchers to examine travel mode choice behaviour (Hartgen and T., 1971;Heggie, 1976;Miskovsky-Janisse, 1983;Syed, 1998;Vredin Johansson et al, 2006;Guiver, 2007;Habib et al, 2011). The study also reported that choice of public or private transport for regular trip purposes mostly depends on availability of parking space and cost.…”

“…Existing literature has identified that travel time, travel cost, travel distance, travel speed, age, gender, income, occupation, education, household size, car ownership, trip purpose, level of traffic congestion, time shifting of work, people's attitude towards transport services, and parking space and cost) influence individual's mode switch behaviour (Habib et al, 2011;Idris, 2013;Vredin Johansson et al, 2006). Among these factors, travel time, travel distance, age, gender, income, education, occupation, household size, trip purpose, and car ownership were examined to investigate the mode switch behaviour of flyover and non-flyover users.…”

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Enabling Bus Transit Service Quality Co-Monitoring Through Smartphone-Based Platform

“…The exact dimensions that constitute service quality, however, vary considerably among scholars and transit organizations. Studies have included as few as six (9) and as many as 31 attributes (14); most fall between 8 and 22 attributes (8,(15)(16)(17)(18)(19), including, but not limited to: accessibility, stop and station conditions, service frequency and reliability, onboard comfort, safety, and service rendered by staff Within the transit industry, the most prevalent channels of gauging service quality are intercept surveys (onboard or at stops/stations), telephone surveys, and web-based surveys (TABLE 1). Many agencies use multiple, complementary channels to capture a wider respondent pool.…”