Perception of Users on the Environmental Impact Caused by Public Transport Operation

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present a model for the assessment of the perception of users on the environmental impact of public transport operation. Public transport operations can contribute to urban pollution control. The research method was the survey with 300 users of public transport in a Brazilian city with 1,500,000 inhabitants. Previous research was used to calculate the sample. Environmental impact of public transportation is an observable set of consequences on the environment, due to the operation. It is treated as a systemic multivariate structure of latent constructs, obtained by literature review, and indicators. Experts in environmental and transport management deployed the constructs in twenty-nine formative and suggested ten reflective indicators that generated scales fulfilled by respondents. Final constructs were reorganized by exploratory factor analysis (EFA): atmospheric emissions; noise pollution; urban space; safety; and waste. Results were analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS2.0 software. The reliability of constructs, the composite reliability, average variance extracted, and t-score were calculated. The main conclusion was: safety and atmospheric emissions of vehicles are the factors that most influence the perception of users about environmental impacts. Environmental image influences positively on the overall image of the service and on the satisfaction of the user, but satisfaction doesn´t increase proneness of users to increase ridership.