IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v174y2023ics0965856423001544.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How does the state of bus operations influence passengers’ service satisfaction? A method considering the differences in passenger preferences

Author

Listed:
  • Weng, JianCheng
  • Yu, JiangBo
  • Di, XiaoJian
  • Lin, PengFei
  • Wang, Jing-Jing
  • Mao, Li-Zeng

Abstract

Public transit (PT) is one of the most important choices for urban residents’ daily travel, and bus operation quality and passengers’ satisfaction are the key factors affecting the attractiveness of urban public transport. However, different types of passengers have diversified expectations and subjective criteria for bus service quality. Therefore, it is worth investigating the relationship between operation quality and service satisfaction among a heterogeneous global cohort of passengers, to develop more scientific strategies to enhance passengers’ satisfaction by improving the operational quality of PT. By considering the diversity of requirements of the different passenger groups, this paper intends to characterize quantitatively the relationship between the operation and service of buses by correlating the bus operation data and service satisfaction questionnaire data. Structural equation modeling is deployed to quantitatively describe the relationship between the latent variables affecting quality perception and overall satisfaction. A Gaussian Mixture Model was established to classify bus passengers into four typical groups based on their travel purposes and individual characteristics. A random forest feature selection method was used to identify the core preference indicators of the four different groups. An “Operation–Service” relational impact model was established to explore the relationships between the bus operating status and service evaluation from the point of view of different passenger groups. The results show that operational efficiency has the greatest impact on passengers’ overall satisfaction. If the average transport speed could increase from 10 km/h to 15 km/h during the rush hours of the workday, the satisfaction scores increased for different groups. When the arrival time fluctuation of the bus is controlled to within 10 min, the satisfaction score for travel time reliability will increase by 122% among young commuting passengers. Some policy recommendations and strategies for specifically increasing passenger satisfaction were also proposed to encourage passengers to adopt a lower-carbon and environmentally friendly way of traveling.

Suggested Citation

  • Weng, JianCheng & Yu, JiangBo & Di, XiaoJian & Lin, PengFei & Wang, Jing-Jing & Mao, Li-Zeng, 2023. "How does the state of bus operations influence passengers’ service satisfaction? A method considering the differences in passenger preferences," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:174:y:2023:i:c:s0965856423001544
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2023.103734
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856423001544
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2023.103734?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jaime Allen & Laura Eboli & Gabriella Mazzulla & Juan de Dios Ortúzar, 2020. "Effect of critical incidents on public transport satisfaction and loyalty: an Ordinal Probit SEM-MIMIC approach," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 827-863, April.
    2. Thomas J. Kimpel & James G. Strathman & Steve Callas, 2008. "Improving Scheduling Through Performance Monitoring," Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, in: Mark Hickman & Pitu Mirchandani & Stefan Voß (ed.), Computer-aided Systems in Public Transport, pages 253-280, Springer.
    3. dell'Olio, Luigi & Ibeas, Angel & Cecin, Patricia, 2011. "The quality of service desired by public transport users," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 217-227, January.
    4. Wang, Fenglong & Mao, Zidan & Wang, Donggen, 2020. "Residential relocation and travel satisfaction change: An empirical study in Beijing, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 341-353.
    5. Tao, Sui & Rohde, David & Corcoran, Jonathan, 2014. "Examining the spatial–temporal dynamics of bus passenger travel behaviour using smart card data and the flow-comap," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 21-36.
    6. Jiancheng Weng & Xiaojian Di & Chang Wang & Jingjing Wang & Lizeng Mao, 2018. "A Bus Service Evaluation Method from Passenger’s Perspective Based on Satisfaction Surveys: A Case Study of Beijing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-15, August.
    7. Echaniz, Eneko & Cordera, Rubén & Rodriguez, Andrés & Nogués, Soledad & Coppola, Pierlugi & dell’Olio, Luigi, 2022. "Spatial and temporal variation of user satisfaction in public transport systems," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 88-97.
    8. Echaniz, Eneko & Ho, Chinh Q. & Rodriguez, Andres & dell'Olio, Luigi, 2019. "Comparing best-worst and ordered logit approaches for user satisfaction in transit services," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 752-769.
    9. Celik, Erkan & Bilisik, Ozge Nalan & Erdogan, Melike & Gumus, Alev Taskin & Baracli, Hayri, 2013. "An integrated novel interval type-2 fuzzy MCDM method to improve customer satisfaction in public transportation for Istanbul," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 28-51.
    10. Mouwen, Arnoud, 2015. "Drivers of customer satisfaction with public transport services," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-20.
    11. Mayara Moraes Monteiro & João de Abreu e Silva & Jesper Bláfoss Ingvardson & Otto Anker Nielsen & Jorge Pinho de Sousa, 2021. "Public Transport Use and Satisfaction by International Students and Researchers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-17, July.
    12. Ingvardson, Jesper Bláfoss & Nielsen, Otto Anker, 2019. "The relationship between norms, satisfaction and public transport use: A comparison across six European cities using structural equation modelling," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 37-57.
    13. Ma, Xiaolei & Liu, Congcong & Wen, Huimin & Wang, Yunpeng & Wu, Yao-Jan, 2017. "Understanding commuting patterns using transit smart card data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 135-145.
    14. Mazzulla, Gabriella & Eboli, Laura, 2006. "A service quality experimental measure for public transport," European Transport \ Trasporti Europei, ISTIEE, Institute for the Study of Transport within the European Economic Integration, issue 34, pages 42-53.
    15. Rong, Rui & Liu, Lishan & Jia, Ning & Ma, Shoufeng, 2022. "Impact analysis of actual traveling performance on bus passenger’s perception and satisfaction," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 80-100.
    16. Moataz Mahmoud & Julian Hine, 2016. "Measuring the influence of bus service quality on the perception of users," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 284-299, April.
    17. Paula Vicente & Abdul Suleman & Elizabeth Reis, 2020. "Index of Satisfaction with Public Transport: A Fuzzy Clustering Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-19, November.
    18. Susilo, Yusak O. & Cats, Oded, 2014. "Exploring key determinants of travel satisfaction for multi-modal trips by different traveler groups," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 366-380.
    19. Allen, Jaime & Muñoz, Juan Carlos & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2019. "Understanding public transport satisfaction: Using Maslow's hierarchy of (transit) needs," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 75-94.
    20. Allen, Jaime & Eboli, Laura & Forciniti, Carmen & Mazzulla, Gabriella & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2019. "The role of critical incidents and involvement in transit satisfaction and loyalty," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 57-69.
    21. Tyndall, Justin, 2018. "Bus quality improvements and local commuter mode share," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 173-183.
    22. van Lierop, Dea & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2016. "Enjoying loyalty: The relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions in public transit," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 50-59.
    23. Ettema, Dick & Friman, Margareta & Gärling, Tommy & Olsson, Lars E. & Fujii, Satoshi, 2012. "How in-vehicle activities affect work commuters’ satisfaction with public transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 215-222.
    24. Zhang, Chunqin & Liu, Yong & Lu, Weite & Xiao, Guangnian, 2019. "Evaluating passenger satisfaction index based on PLS-SEM model: Evidence from Chinese public transport service," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 149-164.
    25. de Oña, Juan & de Oña, Rocío & Eboli, Laura & Mazzulla, Gabriella, 2016. "Index numbers for monitoring transit service quality," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 18-30.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ruiz, Elkin & Yushimito, Wilfredo F. & Aburto, Luis & de la Cruz, Rolando, 2024. "Predicting passenger satisfaction in public transportation using machine learning models," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sun, Shichao & Xu, Lingyu & Yao, Yukun & Duan, Zhengyu, 2021. "Investigating the determinants to retain spurious-loyalty passengers: A data-fusion based approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 70-83.
    2. Sun, Shichao & Zhang, Hui & Zhou, Linlin & Wang, Ke, 2023. "Is the relationship between the perceived service quality and passenger loyalty linear or non-linear? A novel model-independent interpretation method is applied," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 65-79.
    3. Park, Keunhyun & Farb, Anna & Chen, Shuolei, 2021. "First-/last-mile experience matters: The influence of the built environment on satisfaction and loyalty among public transit riders," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 32-42.
    4. Ingvardson, Jesper Bláfoss & Nielsen, Otto Anker, 2019. "The relationship between norms, satisfaction and public transport use: A comparison across six European cities using structural equation modelling," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 37-57.
    5. de Oña, Juan, 2020. "The role of involvement with public transport in the relationship between service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intentions," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 296-318.
    6. Roberto F. Abenoza & Oded Cats & Yusak O. Susilo, 2019. "How does travel satisfaction sum up? An exploratory analysis in decomposing the door-to-door experience for multimodal trips," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(5), pages 1615-1642, October.
    7. Rong, Rui & Liu, Lishan & Jia, Ning & Ma, Shoufeng, 2022. "Impact analysis of actual traveling performance on bus passenger’s perception and satisfaction," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 80-100.
    8. Sun, Fan & Jin, Minjie & Zhang, Tao & Huang, Wencheng, 2022. "Satisfaction differences in bus traveling among low-income individuals before and after COVID-19," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 311-332.
    9. Eldeeb, Gamal & Mohamed, Moataz, 2020. "Quantifying preference heterogeneity in transit service desired quality using a latent class choice model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 119-133.
    10. de Oña, Juan, 2021. "Understanding the mediator role of satisfaction in public transport: A cross-country analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 129-149.
    11. Esmailpour, Javad & Aghabayk, Kayvan & Aghajanzadeh, Mohammad & De Gruyter, Chris, 2022. "Has COVID-19 changed our loyalty towards public transport? Understanding the moderating role of the pandemic in the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 80-103.
    12. Quy Nguyen-Phuoc, Duy & Nguyen, Teron & Ngoc Su, Diep & Thi Le, Phuong & Oviedo-Trespalacios, Oscar, 2022. "How do social cues from other passengers affect word-of-mouth and intention to continue using bus services? A second-order SEM approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 302-320.
    13. Chakrabarti, Sandip, 2022. "Passively wait for gridlock, or proactively invest in service? Strategies to promote car-to-transit switches among aspirational urbanites in rapidly developing contexts," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 251-261.
    14. Ahmad Nazrul Hakimi Ibrahim & Muhamad Nazri Borhan & Nur Izzi Md. Yusoff & Amiruddin Ismail & Muhamad Razuhanafi Mat Yazid & Nor Aznirahani Mhd Yunin & Sotaro Yukawa, 2021. "Gender and Age Do Matter: Exploring the Effect of Passengers’ Gender and Age on the Perception of Light Rail Transit Service Quality in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-18, January.
    15. Abenoza, Roberto F. & Cats, Oded & Susilo, Yusak O., 2017. "Travel satisfaction with public transport: Determinants, user classes, regional disparities and their evolution," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 64-84.
    16. Ahmad Nazrul Hakimi Ibrahim & Muhamad Nazri Borhan & Mohd Haniff Osman & Faridah Hanim Khairuddin & Nur Mustakiza Zakaria, 2022. "An Empirical Study of Passengers’ Perceived Satisfaction with Monorail Service Quality: Case of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-17, May.
    17. Mandhani, Jyoti & Nayak, Jogendra Kumar & Parida, Manoranjan, 2020. "Interrelationships among service quality factors of Metro Rail Transit System: An integrated Bayesian networks and PLS-SEM approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 320-336.
    18. Maria Grazia Bellizzi & Luigi dell’Olio & Laura Eboli & Carmen Forciniti & Gabriella Mazzulla, 2020. "Passengers’ Expectations on Airlines’ Services: Design of a Stated Preference Survey and Preliminary Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-14, June.
    19. Audronė Minelgaitė & Renata Dagiliūtė & Genovaitė Liobikienė, 2020. "The Usage of Public Transport and Impact of Satisfaction in the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-13, November.
    20. Sun, Shichao & Duan, Zhengyu, 2019. "Modeling passengers’ loyalty to public transit in a two-dimensional framework: A case study in Xiamen, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 295-309.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:174:y:2023:i:c:s0965856423001544. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.