Abstract
Increasing public transport use is recognized by many countries as crucial to the pursuit of a global strategy for environmental sustainability and improving urban mobility. Understanding what users value in a public transport service is essential to carry out this strategy. Using fuzzy clustering, we developed an index that measures individual user satisfaction with the public transport service in the metropolitan area of Lisbon and subsequently identified the possible determinants of satisfaction by means of a regression tree model. The results achieved unveil a hierarchical partition of the data, highlighting the diversified level of satisfaction among public transport users that is reflected in the distribution of the index. The managerial implications of the findings for the public transport service are addressed.
Highlights
It is widely accepted that cities of the future must become more sustainable—economically, socially, and environmentally—and that public transport has a major role to play in this regard [1]
The grade of membership (GoM) model was applied to the sample of I = 1166 public transport users who rated their satisfaction level in J = 26 service attributes
This research proposed an overall scalar measure or index for the satisfaction with public transport in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (MAL) based on users’ opinions about 26 service attributes. It was accomplished using the data from a survey purposefully designed to evaluate the satisfaction with the public transport system in this area
Summary
It is widely accepted that cities of the future must become more sustainable—economically, socially, and environmentally—and that public transport has a major role to play in this regard [1]. Trains, trams, and subways can transport many people at the same time, with fewer carbon emissions than cars, and cause less traffic pressure. These claims have echoed in many countries and concrete actions are already visible. The concern for a sustainable environment has been a driving force for relevant investments towards more eco-friendly public transport systems, such as expansions of metro, train, and tram networks [3]; installing bike parking facilities near train or metro stations; widening of the cycle path network [4]; and switching to electric or hybrid buses [5]. There is room to improve the percentage of users of public transport. We cannot expect it to be an easy task, since most people in EU member states acknowledge the car as the main mode of transport for everyday journeys [8]
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