Transport Quality Profiles of European Cities Based on a Multidimensional Set of Satisfaction Ratings Indicators

Abstract

A monitoring system of perceived quality of transport services at the city level is proposed on the basis of a set of 92 indicators covering various travel modes and considering the viewpoints of different groups. Special emphasis was given to public transport, bicycles, pedestrians, and travelers with special needs (e.g., commuters, visitors, mobility-challenged or communication-impaired travelers). Indicators were found through principal component analysis from a set of satisfaction ratings elicited through a survey in eight European cities, implemented within the METPEX research project, a measurement tool to determine the quality of passenger experience. Benchmarking values were computed for all indicators to provide the analyst with some initial guidance. All indicators were then visualized through a dashboard that could give policy makers a synthetic overview of the main areas where perceived quality and accessibility were above or below average. At the same time, joint consideration of indicators from different dimensions of the evaluation exercise—by travel means, by traveler profile, by phase of the journey experience—provided additional insights on specific issues that would be overlooked in a coarser-quality assessment activity.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

de Oña

, and de Oña

. Quality of Service in Public Transport Based on Customer Satisfaction Surveys: A Review and Assessment of Methodological Approaches. Transportation Science, Vol. 49, No. 3, 2015, pp. 605–622. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2014.0544.

Kittelson and Associates, Inc., Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc., KFH Group, Inc., Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and ARUP. TCRP Report 165: Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual, 3rd ed. Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2013.

Transportation Research Board and Kittelson and Associates, Inc. TCRP Report 88: A Guidebook for Developing a Transit Performance-Measurement System. Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2003.

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

, Aievoli

, Ackroyd

, Carlin

, and Reddy

. Passenger Environment Survey: Representing the Customer Perspective in Quality Control. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2112, 2009, pp. 93–103. https://doi.org/10.3141/2112-12.

Carreira

, Patrício

, Natal Jorge

, Magee

, and Van Eikema Hommes

. Towards a Holistic Approach to the Travel Experience: A Qualitative Study of Bus Transportation. Transport Policy, Vol. 25, 2013, pp. 233–243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2012.11.009.

Carreira

, Patrício

, Natal Jorge

, and Magee

. Understanding the Travel Experience and Its Impact on Attitudes, Emotions, and Loyalty Towards the Transportation Provider—A Quantitative Study with Mid-Distance Bus Trips. Transport Policy, Vol. 31, 2014, pp. 35–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2013.11.006.

Tyrinopoulos

, and Antoniou

. Public Transit User Satisfaction: Variability and Policy Implications. Transport Policy, Vol. 15, No. 4, 2008, pp. 260–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2008.06.002.

Susilo

Y. O.

, and Cats

. Exploring Key Determinants of Travel Satisfaction for Multi-Modal Trips by Different Traveler Groups. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Vol. 67, 2014, pp. 366–380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2014.08.002.

10.

Andreassen

T. W.

(Dis)satisfaction with Public Services: The Case of Public Transportation. Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 9, No. 5, 1995, pp. 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1108/08876049510100290.

11.

dell’Olio

, Ibeas

, and Cecín

. Modelling User Perception of Bus Transit Quality. Transport Policy, Vol. 17, No. 6, 2010, pp. 388–397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2010.04.006.

12.

Eboli

, and Mazzulla

. A New Customer Satisfaction Index for Evaluating Transit Service Quality. Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2009, pp. 21–37. https://doi.org/10.5038/2375-0901.12.3.2.

13.

Rojo Arce

, Gonzalo-Orden

, dell’Olio

, and Ibeas Portilla

Á.

. Modelling Gender Perception of Quality in Interurban Bus Services. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers—Transport, Vol. 164, Issue TR1, 2011, pp. 43–53. https://doi.org/10.1680/tran.9.00031.

14.

Bordagaray

, dell’Olio

, Ibeas

, and Cecín

. Modelling User Perception of Bus Transit Quality Considering User and Service Heterogeneity. Transportmetrica A: Transportation Science, Vol. 10, No. 8, 2014, pp. 705–721. https://doi.org/10.1080/23249935.2013.823579.

15.

Susilo

Y. O.

, Abenoza

, Woodcock

, Liotopoulos

, Duarte

, Osmond

, Georgiadis

, Hrin

G. R.

, Bellver

, Fornari

, Tolio

, O’Connell

, Markucevičiūtė

, and Diana

. Findings from Measuring Door-to-Door Travellers’ Travel Satisfaction with Traditional and Smartphone App Survey Methods in Eight European Cities. Paper presented at International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR 2015), Windsor, United Kingdom, July 19–23, 2015.

16.

Diana

, Pirra

, Castro

, Duarte

, Brangeon

, Di Majo

, Herrero

, Hrin

G. R.

, and Woodcock

. Development of an Integrated Set of Indicators to Measure the Quality of the Whole Traveller Experience. Transportation Research Procedia, Vol. 14, 2016, pp. 1164–1173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2016.05.187.

17.

Cronbach

Coefficient Alpha and the Internal Structure of Tests. Psychometrika, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1951, pp. 297–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02310555.

18.

Bishop

C. M.

Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning. Springer, New York, 2006.

19.

A Comprehensive Set of Quality and Accessibility Indicators for Transport Services. Deliverable 5.2 of the METPEX project, 2015. www.metpex.eu.

20.

Testing the Indicators and Developing Benchmarks. Deliverable 5.3 of the METPEX Project, 2015. www.metpex.eu.

21.

A Transport Services Quality and Accessibility Evaluation Manual. Deliverable 5.4 of the METPEX project, 2015. www.metpex.eu.