Passengers’ Perception of and Behavioral Adaptation to Unreliability in Public Transportation

Reliability is regularly cited by users of public transportation as one of the most important qualities of service. However, it is not yet well understood how transit riders are affected by unreliability, particularly in the long term. To gain a better understanding of the importance of reliability, a survey focusing on users of San Francisco’s public transportation system in California was developed to investigate the link between people’s past experiences of unreliability and the adaptation strategies that they used. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of a number of reliability aspects; the aspects found to be most important were the absence of a gap at a transfer stop and the ability to walk up to a stop and leave within 10 min. Users also reported that they considered reliability when planning trips. Common strategies for handling unreliability were using services and routes deemed more reliable and using real-time information. In addition, an ordinal logit model linking past experiences of unreliability to a reduction in transit use was estimated. The most significant negative experiences that drove a reduction in transit use were delays perceived to be the fault of the transit agency, long waits at transfer points, and being prevented from boarding because of crowding. These results have implications in transit planning: passengers may prefer more frequent service with occasional crowding over less frequent buses that are larger and less crowded. In addition, the growing use of real-time information services will continue to affect how people view transit service and perhaps even intensify the unattractiveness of infrequent service.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.3141/2351-17
• Summary URL:
  http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Passengers%e2%ac%22+Perception+of+and+Behavioral+Adaptation+to+Unreliability+in+Public+Transportation&author=A.+Carrel&author=A.+Halvorsen&author=J.+Walker&publication_year=2013
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/170342.aspx
• Authors:
  • Carrel, Andre
  • Halvorsen, Anne
  • Walker, Joan L
• Publication Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 153–162
• Monograph Title: Transit 2013, Volume 2
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Issue Number: 2351
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Customer satisfaction; On time performance; Passenger transportation; Psychological adaptation; Quality of service; Surveys; Transit riders; Travel time; Waiting time
• Geographic Terms: San Francisco (California)
• Subject Areas: Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01479128
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309286992
• Report/Paper Numbers: 13-5289
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Apr 23 2013 9:28AM