Public transport ridership retention is a challenge for many cities. To develop comprehensive strategies aimed at retaining riders, it is necessary to understand the aspects of public transport that influence users to become loyal to the system. This paper analyses relevant literature regarding the causes of satisfaction and loyalty in public transport. We find that the service factors most associated with satisfaction are on-board cleanliness and comfort, courteous and helpful behaviour from operators, safety, as well as punctuality and frequency of service. On the other hand, loyalty is associated with users’ perceptions of value-for-money, on-board safety and cleanliness, interactions with personnel and the image and commitment to public transport that users feels. Furthermore, the results elucidate that the concept of loyalty is best defined based on users’ intentions to continue using the service, their willingness to recommend it to others, their overall satisfaction, but also and most importantly, their image of and involvement with public transport. Public transport users who have a positive image of the agency and consider public transport an integral component of city life are more likely to demonstrate loyalty and act like ambassadors for public transport agencies.
The rapid emergence of dockless bikeshare systems has had a considerable influence on individuals’ daily mobility patterns. However, information is still limited regarding the role that sociodemographics, social environments, travel attitudes and the built environment play on the adoption and usage of dockless bikeshare systems. To gain insight into what influences individuals to start and continue to use dockless bikeshare systems, this study sets out to assess the influential factors that are related to individuals’ initial adoption and frequency of usage of this transportation mode. A survey was conducted among the residents of Beijing to assess their usage of dockless bikeshare systems. A binary logistic regression is employed to assess travel mode adoption, and a set of hurdle negative binominal regressions is used to assess the travel frequency for four trip purposes. The results reveal that dockless bikeshare systems are more popular among younger, higher educated, or median-income groups and appear to be gender-independent. The total number of kilometers of roads within an individual’s neighborhood was reported to be positively associated with having higher odds of dockless bikeshare adoption, while the total length of bicycle paths does not show a significant relationship. Having a pro-bicycle attitude was found to play a strong positive role in deciding whether to use the dockless bikeshare system initially, but it became less important in determining bikeshare users’ frequency of usage. Finally, this study confirms that it is relevant to consider various trip purposes when exploring individuals’ travel behavior and dockless bikeshare usage.
24 July 2023 in European Transport Research Review
Background: An individual’s inability to fully participate in social life due to limited means of transport options, in short, transport poverty, is a common theme in contemporary transport planning. However, due to the lack of a universal definition, identification and measurement of transport poverty can be challenging. Purpose: This paper aims to assess the implications of three widely used definitions and a newly developed measurement scale by comparing them in terms of scale levels, measurement dimensions and research contexts Methodology: This study first systematically reviews the literature on transport poverty and summarizes aspects of the transport poverty concept emphasized in previous studies. Using survey data from two Dutch cities, the study then measures transport poverty by means of a scoring system and an indicator derived from a new measurement scale by factor analysis. Finally, by performing a series of linear regression models on the generated scores, the predictors of each definition (measurement scale) are compared to identify which aspects of transport poverty are prioritized by each definition. Findings: Each transport poverty definition correlates with a different set of predictors, indicating that the used definition of transport poverty has an impact on how the concept is identified and implying in which contexts the definition (measurement scale) can be applied. The findings could help policymakers evaluate the applicability of different transport poverty definitions in specific contexts and help them select the optimal measurement tool for assessing the problem they are aiming to solve.
As a newly emerged bike-sharing system, dockless bike-sharing has the potential to positively influence urban mobility by encouraging active cycling and drawing users from car, public transit and walking. However, scant empirical research explores the extent to which dockless bike-sharing replaces other travel modes for different travel purposes. There is a lack of knowledge about how dockless bike-sharing users’ personal characteristics and neighborhood environment features influence their mode substitution behaviors. Using survey data collected from residents in Beijing and geodata of land use and public transit, we conduct four multinomial logistic models to explore potential mode-substitution behaviors influenced by dockless bike-sharing for four travel purposes: work or education commuting, sports and leisure, grocery shopping, and recreational activities such as shopping, eating and drinking. The results indicate that, for the majority of respondents, dockless bike-sharing systems potentially substitute for walking or public transit. In addition, our analysis of travel attitudes points out that dockless bike-sharing not only attracts bicycle lovers but also users with a preference or positive attitude toward other travel modes. The positive association between the length of bicycle paths and the likelihood of potentially replacing public transit or motorized vehicles by dockless bike-sharing also reveals that the cycling infrastructure of residential neighborhood could be an important facilitator for users of public transit and motorized vehicles to switch to dockless bike-sharing systems.
Carsharing is becoming an increasingly popular mode of transportation in many cities around the world. Previous research has revealed that users tend to be young, are highly educated, have high incomes and live in densely populated neighbourhoods. However, this does not explain why people who have similar socioeconomic characteristics do not adopt carsharing when residing in comparable urban contexts. To assess the critical differences between users and non-users of carsharing, the current research uses the theory of planned behaviour as a theoretical framework to analyse how aspects of an individual’s social and self-identity determine their intentions to participate in carsharing. In-person intercept questionnaire data were collected in the Berlin neighbourhoods Schloßstraße, Steglitz and Glasower Straße, Neukölln in the fall of 2019 (N = 216). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to analyse the collected data. The model results suggest that having a pro-technology self-identity and negative pro-car identity are significantly associated with the intention to participate in carsharing. These associations are present in both the structural and alternative models. Moreover, both models indicate a negative relationship between individuals’ degree of environmental self-identity and the degree of their pro-car identity. The results suggest that, in order to promote carsharing, regional governments should focus on attracting new users who are currently already using mobility technology. The findings can be used by regional governments to identify potential carsharing users and to specifically target individuals who are likely to be willing to adopt and participate in carsharing.