Recent interests in transit services have captured attention of experts on the monitoring of public transport quality. Previous research focused on relevant models and methods to monitor the quality of transit services and showed where and when different service quality levels occur. However, there was little attention to detect objectively a pool of key quality indicators (KQI) to be monitored, from a large set. This paper covers this gap by the proposal of an integrated approach, which identifies a long list of KQI, defines their properties, involves experts to elicit judgments for each KQI, evaluates the long list, and points out the most promising set. This integrated approach is demonstrated with an application based on an international survey and a Monte Carlo simulation method. Moreover, a restricted and relevant set of 9 overlapping KQI is derived by linking these results with those obtained from two different approaches.

An Integrated Approach to Select Key Quality Indicators in Transit Services

Bus crash risk evaluation: An adjusted framework and its application in a real network.

Public transportation is an effective method of mobility that promotes cost-saving and is environmentally friendly. Poor public transport ridership in Malaysia is due to the unsatisfactory attitude of public transport users and inaccurate information on departure and arrivals. Sarawak, a state of Malaysia, is especially poor in ridership of public transport. A real-time Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking application (app) was found to be an effective tool to increase the ridership of public transport. Hence, a mobile app named UniBus was developed to enhance the ridership of public transport in Sarawak. The determinants that affect satisfaction and customer loyalty such as accessibility, reliability, comfort, safety, and security were all examined before and after the use of real-time GPS tracking app. The data was collected in Kuching, and targeted public transport users who used the UniBus app. The result indicated that all the mentioned variables were improved after using a real-time GPS tracking app. It is suggested that future studies can consider other factors such as service quality, availability, and perceived value as well as cover other states of Malaysia.

Sustainability of public transportation: An examination of user behavior to real-time gps tracking application

Onboard bus comfort significantly depends on the bus lanes characteristics, such as horizontal curvature, pavement roughness, longitudinal, and transversal slope. A literature review shows a statistical relationship between acceleration level and passenger features, such as age and gender. A large number of onboard interviews have been collected and correlated to bus-lane geometry parameters, to evaluate the vibrational comfort of different passengers. Passenger’s judgments are related to the lateral, longitudinal, and vertical shake. At the same time, a geometric investigation on bus-lane corridors, traveled during interviews, in the city of Cagliari in Italy allowed to extract infrastructure parameters in terms of numbers and density of turns, horizontal curvature radius, speed design, and acceleration variance. The paper analyzed the correlation between some geometric and cinematics road parameters that may affect the comfort and the different passenger’s judgments on the three acceleration components by age classes and hourly day. The results generally show weak correlations between the selected parameters and passenger judgments. Conversely, travel speeds have significant correlation values. There is a moderate inverse correlation between the vibrational level and the age of the passengers. The younger age groups tend to have more severe judgments, attributable to their higher demand for comfort. The presence of preferential lanes increases the onboard comfort quality in terms of speed regularity, without private cars interferences.

On-Board Comfort of Different Age Passengers and Bus-Lane Characteristics

The recent invasion of electric-powered personal mobility vehicles (e-PMVs) in many cities worldwide has disputed the transport sector and captured the attention of academics, practitioners, and public administrators. Indeed, these vehicles are believed to be sustainable transport alternatives. Therefore, understanding how to evaluate and monitor the related performance is crucial and may be addressed by suitable key sustainable parameters (KSPs) to inform on the excellences and criticalities of e-PMVs. Previous research has focused largely on “how to measure and manage” KSPs rather than “what to measure”. Conversely, as far as the authors know, no study investigated objective methods for identifying and selecting top KSPs. This paper covers this gap by proposing a cohesive approach, which identifies a long list of KSPs, defines their properties, involves experts to elicit judgments for each KSP, evaluates the long list, and returns the most promising set. This approach is demonstrated with an application based on an Italian survey. A circumscribed and relevant set of six overlapping KSPs is derived by merging two different approaches. These results may support the opportunity to assess the performance of e-PMVs among cities according to a common set of KSPs.

Identifying and Selecting Key Sustainable Parameters for the Monitoring of e-Powered Micro Personal Mobility Vehicles. Evidence from Italy

Recent interests in transit services have captured attention of experts on the monitoring of public transport quality. Previous research has focused on the development of relevant models and methods for monitoring transit service quality and identified where and when different levels of service quality occur. However, little attention has been given to objectively determining a pool of key quality indicators (KQIs) for monitoring purposes. In this paper, we address this gap by proposing a robust methodology that identifies a lengthy list of potential KQIs and defines their properties, then enlists the judgement of both researchers and practitioners regarding each KQI, evaluates the initial list, and recommends the most promising KQI set. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this methodology using an international survey and Monte Carlo simulation methods. The outcomes will prove useful in helping practitioners to monitor transit service quality according to a set of recognised KQIs.

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Nicola Aldo Cabras

Papers

An Integrated Approach to Select Key Quality Indicators in Transit Services

Selecting key quality indicators in public transport systems using a robust method