Estimation of transportation service quality for selected groups of users using customer satisfaction index

The supply of effective and efficient public transportation services is important and essential for society and environment. This can encourage people to use public transit and reduce the usage of private cars which have roles in achieving sustainable goals that related to providing sustained modes of transportation. This, in turn, leads to avoid or reduce the effect of the most important global issues such as, traffic congestion, air pollution, fuel consumption, and other environmental consequences. Therefore, there is a need to identify the attributes that enhance the satisfaction and increase the usage of public transportation which are various across the different cultures, demographics, and purposes. In Iraq, there are a few studies that considered the demand for public buses as it is the main mode of public transportation. The aim of this paper is to measure to what extent the supplied public transportation service is satisfied through identifying the factors that enhance the choice of public transportation by road users and measure the quality service of public transportation. To achieve these objectives, a questionnaire method was used to collect the needed data for a specific group of people which are students and academic staff. The study areas, which were selected according to the purposes of trips which are education and work trips, are the area around Al-Essra University and Al-Mansour University in Al-Karadah sector in Baghdad City. The collected data was analyzed to describe the attributes that passengers based on in selecting the mode of transportation and to determine an aggregated index which can be used to quantify the quality of the public transportation service in the selected area. The results show that about 44% of people who prefer to use their private cars have decided this because of the long waiting time at bus stops and inside the buses. While about 42% of passengers who prefer to use public buses have decided their mode of transport based on the cost criteria. Regarding the transit service quality, it has been found that the safety indicator is the most important criterion that passengers based on in assessing the quality of service. This can be considered in further studies or transportation projects.