Incorporation of Transportation User Perception into Evaluation of Service Quality of Signalized Intersections

Abstract

Concepts of transportation service quality are related to efforts to evaluate driving conditions and the level of satisfaction that transportation users perceive. However, few data have been gathered from actual users about perceived service quality. A new method is developed for the evaluation of transportation service quality using a fuzzy aggregation and a cultural consensus analysis technique. After a literature review was conducted, six analysis criteria that showed promise as relevant indicators were selected to apply the developed method to assess the service quality of signalized intersections. With the use of a fuzzy weighted-average technique on six criteria, individual perceptions regarding the service quality of signalized intersections were evaluated. Then, the weight of an individual's perceptions, measured with consensus analysis, was applied to estimate a more realistic, aggregated overall service quality rating of a signalized intersection. Through the consensus analysis, the competence scores–which indicate how “correct” and relatively important each individual's response is–were estimated and used for each participant. Experimental results indicate that user perceptions of transportation service quality fall in a narrow measurable range of the scale constructed to perform this measurement. In other words, users' perceptions are not easily distinguished and vary greatly by individual. Therefore, user-perceived service quality ratings do not correspond to the level of service evaluated using the Highway Capacity Manual method. Ratings of user-perceived service quality of signalized intersections evaluated by using the new fuzzy aggregation method are in better agreement with the actual perceptions that people hold than those obtained by using a more conventional method.