Measuring Satisfaction with Transit and Car Trips with Use of One Logistic Regression Model

Abstract

The aim of this research was to identify and quantify the elements that influenced the trip satisfaction of people traveling by public transport, private car, or both. The data used in this research came from a revealed preference survey designed for global use and conducted in 2014, with most responses coming from Lisbon, Portugal, and Thessaloniki, Greece. These data include sociodemographic characteristics, public transport preferences, and trip characteristics obtained from trip diaries. A generalized logistic regression model was developed to assess the average trip satisfaction for all transit alternatives and the private car. In this model, satisfaction was expressed as a probability of satisfaction in 100 Bernoulli trials, and a final satisfaction rating was created. The results indicate that individual trip-specific attributes, such as crowdedness and traffic, are more important than network characteristics and performance. Attributes fixed for a specific trip, such as access time and parking costs, or having small variability, such as waiting time for the subway, are found to be completely insignificant with relation to satisfaction. The results also suggest that attributes affecting service reliability and comfort are the ones users value higher with respect to satisfaction. A conclusion one might draw from the results is that the characteristics of a transit system or road network do not affect trip satisfaction. These elements could play a more important role in the mode choice process, but the attributes that may vary from trip to trip are the ones that seem to affect trip satisfaction.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

European Commission. White Paper: Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area—Towards a Competitive and Resource-Efficient Transport System. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2011.

Perk

, Flynn

, and Volinski

J. M.

. Transit Ridership, Reliability, and Retention. Florida Department of Transportation, Tallahassee, 2008.

Beimborn

E. A.

, Greenwald

M. J.

, and Jin

. Accessibility, Connectivity, and Captivity: Impacts on Transit Choice. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1835, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2003, pp. 1–9.

Pearce

An Intellectual History of Environmental Economics. Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, Vol. 27, 2002, pp. 57–81.

Diana

Measuring the Satisfaction of Multimodal Travelers for Local Transit Services in Different Urban Contexts. Transportation Research Part A, Vol. 46, No. 1, 2012, pp. 1–11.

Mouwen

Drivers of Customer Satisfaction with Public Transport Services. Transportation Research Part A, Vol. 78, 2015, pp. 1–20.

Tyrinopoulos

, and Antoniou

. Public Transit User Satisfaction: Variability and Policy Implications. Transport Policy, Vol. 15, No. 4, 2008, pp. 260–272.

Del Castillo

J. M.

, and Benitez

F. G.

. A Methodology for Modeling and Identifying Users Satisfaction Issues in Public Transport Systems Based on Users Surveys. Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 54, 2012, pp. 1104–1114.

Dell'Olio

, Ibeas

Á.

, and Cecin

. The Quality of Service Desired by Public Transport Users. Transport Policy, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011, pp. 217–227.

10.

Transportation—Logistics and Services; Public Passenger Transport– Service Quality Definition, Targeting, and Measurement. European Standard EN 13816. European Committee for Standardization, Brussels, Belgium, 2002.

11.

Morpace International, Inc. TCRP Report 47: A Handbook for Measuring Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality. TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1999.

12.

Morfoulaki

, and Papaioannou

. Measuring Customer Satisfaction Index: Survey of Thessaloniki, Greece. Presented at 85th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2006.

13.

Ettema

, Gärling

, Olsson

L. E.

, Friman

, and Moerdijk

. The Road to Happiness: Measuring Dutch Car Drivers' Satisfaction with Travel. Transport Policy, Vol. 27, 2013, pp. 171–178.

14.

Hagman

Mobilizing Meanings of Mobility: Car Users' Constructions of the Goods and Bads of Car Use. Transportation Research Part D, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2003, pp. 1–9.

15.

Steg

Car Use: Lust and Must—Instrumental, Symbolic, and Affective Motives for Car Use. Transportation Research Part A, Vol. 39, No. 2–3, 2005, pp. 147–162.

16.

Taniguchi

, Grääs

, and Friman

. Satisfaction with Travel, Goal Achievement, and Voluntary Behavioral Change. Transportation Research Part F, Vol. 26, 2014, pp. 10–17.

17.

Pedersen

, Kristensson

, and Friman

. Counteracting the Focusing Illusion: Effects of Defocusing on Car Users' Predicted Satisfaction with Public Transport. Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2012, pp. 30–36.

18.

Pedersen

, Kristensson

, and Friman

. Effects of Critical Incidents on Car Users' Predicted Satisfaction with Public Transport. Transportation Research Part F, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2011, pp. 138–146.

19.

Beirão

, and Sarsfield Cabral

J. A.

. Understanding Attitudes Towards Public Transport and Private Car: A Qualitative Study. Transport Policy, Vol. 14, No. 6, 2007, pp. 478–489.

20.

Wang

, Li

, Wu

, and Bai

. Private Car Switched to Public Transit by Commuters, in Shanghai, China. Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 96, 2013, pp. 1293–1303.

21.

Eriksson

, Friman

, and Gärling

. Perceived Attributes of Bus and Car Mediating Satisfaction with the Work Commute. Transportation Research Part A, Vol. 47, 2013, pp. 87–96.

22.

Eboli

, and Mazzulla

. Service Quality Attributes Affecting Customer Satisfaction for Bus Transit. Public Transportation, Vol. 10, No. 3, 2007, pp. 21–34.

23.

Anna

, Antonello

D. A.

, and Angelo

. A Panel Data Approach to Evaluate the Passenger Satisfaction of a Public Transport Service. Procedia—Economics and Finance, Vol. 17, 2014, pp. 231–237.

24.

Oral

, Kettani

, Cosset

J.-C.

, and Daouas

. An Estimation Model for Country Risk Rating. International Journal of Forecasting, Vol. 8, No. 4, 1992, pp. 583–593.

25.

Berg

Bankruptcy Prediction by Generalized Additive Models. Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2007, pp. 129–143.

26.

, and Ping

E. W. Y.

. A Service Performance Model of Hong Kong Cruise Travelers' Motivation Factors and Satisfaction. Tourism Management, Vol. 20, No. 2, 1999, pp. 237–244.