The quality of information desired by paratransit users in Medan, Indonesia

Abstract

In many developing cities, like Medan, the state of public transportation is considered inadequate and limited to paratransit, locally known as ‘angkot.’ While advanced mass transit systems are still far in the future, improving the paratransit is arguably the most plausible supporting solution at the moment. Paratransit users in Medan have reported to our study that reliability is one of their sources of disappointment. Technological development nowadays should ease the problem through the quality of real-time information provision. In this preliminary study, we conducted surveys to explore users’ perspective and desire for transit information services. Questionnaire responses from 350 tech-savvy users were collected from several centers of activity and terminals. It is as expected that most respondents experienced uncertainty using the current paratransit, and acknowledged the importance of having information services. Further result shows the user’s high expectancy towards information related to fleet location and arriving time estimation. In general, users were willing to use information services if provided regardless of the additional costs. This preliminary study gives a meaningful view of the opportunity to improve public likeness to this local paratransit service. This research is part of research on perception and preference of paratransit user on real-time information provision.