Understanding the expectations of parents regarding their children's school commuting by public transport using latent Dirichlet Allocation

Parents’ perceptions regarding public transport and active modes influence the youth's acceptance and support for sustainable school commuting. Urban mobility surveys can gather such insights by utilizing closed and open-ended questions. The latter, particularly, holds the potential for nuanced expectations and insights from Public Transport (PT) users, often absent in closed-ended responses. This paper proposes a methodology utilizing Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to extract valuable information from open-ended survey responses, shedding light on parents' expectations regarding their children's school commute via PT. Analyzing responses from two surveys involving 448 households, with a focus on parents in the Lisbon Metro Area, spanning the school years of 2017–2018 and 2018–2019, and pre-and post-field interventions, the authors' study employs LDA to assess households' criticisms and recommendations for improving public transport services. The authors' findings illustrate a shift from general criticisms in the initial survey to proactive suggestions in the subsequent one, aligning with marketing efforts to foster more sustainable school commuting with PT. Empirically, the authors' study underscores LDA's efficacy in capturing users' feedback often neglected by closed-ended questions. Effective preprocessing of textual data facilitates streamlined field interventions. Overall, the authors' contribution provides user-centered insights to inform PT policymakers, promoting the incorporation of user-driven enhancements.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2024.103986
• Record URL:
  • http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096585642400034X
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09658564
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Motta Queiroz, Mariza
  • Roque, Carlos
  • 0000-0003-3612-7807
  • Moura, Filipe
  • Marôco, João
• Publication Date: 2024-3

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 103986
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
  • Volume: 181
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0965-8564
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09658564

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Commuting; Data mining; Public transit; School children; Sustainable transportation
• Geographic Terms: Lisbon (Portugal)
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01911491
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 11 2024 3:56PM