Identifying Potential Public Transport Users in Jember, Indonesia

Public transport (PT) serves as the backbone of transportation systems, ensuring inclusive mobility for all travelers. Despite its benefits, PT is not a popular transport mode in cities in developing nations. While service quality factors have been widely examined in studies of PT preferences, the role of attitudes remains underexplored, particularly in developing countries. This study aims to reveal preferences for PT in Jember by including factors related to socio-demographic and attitude, where ordered logit model is used to estimate the parameters. The results indicate that potential adopters of the future PT services are younger individuals and workers who prefer convenient payment methods such as cash or QR codes, and who are sensitive to walking distances greater than 600 m to access stops. In contrast, frequent motorcycle users, those with easy access to existing PT, and individuals with stronger environmental consciousness appear less willing to adopt. For policymakers, this highlights the importance of designing PT services with shorter access distances, simple payment systems, and targeted particular policies to shift motorcycle users, thereby enhancing the likelihood of broader adoption in similar contexts.