The Impacts of Government Subsidies on Public Transportation Customer Complaints: A Case Study of Taichung City Bus Subsidy Policy

Abstract

The government has implemented an operational subsidy program with the expectation that bus companies can provide better services to passengers. However, does the change in government subsidy policies affect the service levels of bus companies? This study analyzed passenger complaint data to objectively express the results of changes in bus subsidy policies. Taking Taichung City buses as an example, there was a change in transportation policies after a change in the municipal government. Under the old policy, Taichung City buses implemented a subsidy policy based on passengers (SPP), where the first eight kilometers of a route were subsidized. Later, the SPK subsidy policy, based on kilometers (SPK), extended the subsidy coverage by bus mileage to 10 km. This study collected bus passenger complaint data before and after the change in subsidy policies, within six months. A t-Test was conducted to verify if the average customer complaint types were consistent between the two policies. The results showed significant differences in six categories of customer complaints, which were then presented in GIS. Finally, we drew two main conclusions: (1) SPP policy, bus companies focus on operating in CBD; (2) SPK policy, bus companies focus on operating in suburban areas.