Roberto F. Abenoza

Evolution of Satisfaction with Public Transport and Its Determinants in Sweden: Identifying Priority Areas

Measurement and analysis of satisfaction with public transport services facilitate service performance monitoring, market analysis, benchmarking, and the identification of priority areas. The systematic and regular collection of information concerning satisfaction enables investigation of how passengers’ satisfaction and its determinants change over time. These changes may be driven by changes in service quality or shifts in passengers’ expectations and preferences. This study analyzed how satisfaction with public transport and its determinants evolved over time in Sweden in the years 2001 to 2013. The determinants of satisfaction were identified by factor analysis and the estimation of multivariate satisfaction models. The superposition of these findings culminated in a dynamic passenger satisfaction priority map that allowed the identification of priority areas on the basis of observed trends in satisfaction with service attributes and their respective importance. The deterioration of overall satisfaction with public transport in Sweden in recent years has been driven by a decrease in satisfaction with customer interface and length of trip time. These two service aspects, as well as operation, were found to be key determinants of overall satisfaction that users consistently rated among the least satisfactory. The results of this study will support service providers in designing measures that will foster satisfaction in the future.

Individual, Travel, and Bus Stop Characteristics Influencing Travelers’ Safety Perceptions

Ensuring safety during door-to-door public transport trips is a fundamental challenge to service providers, as safety influences individuals’ mobility. Using reported safety perceptions of travelers waiting at six bus stops with different characteristics in Stockholm, this study investigates factors that have an impact on determining travelers’ perceived safety and crime perceptions. This is done by assessing the importance of real-time information provision and the environmental characteristics of bus stops during the day and at night for different types of crime, after controlling for travelers’ individual and trip characteristics, and their previous experiences of victimization. Interaction effects of age, gender, and travel frequency are also tested. The results suggest that bus shelter characteristics, natural surveillance, and trustworthy real-time information are the most important factors influencing safety and crime perceptions. Additionally, safety perceptions are strongly influenced by previous experiences of victimization. The effect of perceived feelings about crime and safety are found to be nuanced by age and gender. Unlike some common beliefs, travelers: (1) feel less worried about becoming a victim of crime at bus stops associated with high crime rates; (2) prefer opaque shelters at night; and (3) have higher safety perceptions when the stop is located in an area of mixed land use. The impact of a bus stop’s number of passers-by is found to be insignificant. No direct or indirect effects can be attributed to frequency of travel by bus, indicating that familiar places and routine behavior have no effect on declared crime and safety perceptions.

Measuring Mobility and Transport Services: The METPEX Project

Public transport is key to access social, economic, civic and cultural life. However, there is still a need to better understand (1) the needs of all transport users and (2) transport provision in cities and regions. The development of an inclusive, validated, passenger experience measurement instrument is the first step in understanding the whole journey, multi-modal journeys. Such a validated tool would enable resources to be focused on areas which travelers felt most important. Such information could be used to create high quality, user centred, integrated, accessible public transport services, capable of attracting and retaining public transport users whilst meeting sustainability targets. This paper describes the METPEX project and the derivation of a set of Key Performance Indicators.