Factors affecting travellers' satisfaction with accessibility to public transportation

Kurzfassung

Accessibility to public transportation is one of the important attributes to assess the effectiveness of a transit system and the integration of transportation with land use. The level of accessibility can be a determining factor for users’ perception and satisfaction with the overall transit system. Previous studies on travellers’ satisfaction with public transportation focus on variables directly related to the service such as bus stop facilities, drivers’ behaviour, schedule adherence, bus frequency, vehicle cleanliness etc. However, external and subjective variables such as how people perceive ease of access as a function of walking, biking or even driving to reach to the closest rail or bus stops got little attention. This research applies a panel binomial probit model to analyse the parametric relationship between the level of travellers’ satisfaction with accessibility to public transport services and the socio-economic as well as mode-related variables (such as gender, age, occupation, public transport connectivity, car ownership etc.). The study also estimates the likelihood of travellers’ satisfaction for each survey year using a German Mobility Panel (1997-2008). The modelling results indicate a remarkable relationship between the explanatory variables and satisfaction with accessibility to public transport. The probabilistic estimate also shows that there is a time variant effect of satisfaction with accessibility.