Kehsun Lin UC Berkeley Campus Bus Shuttles Spring 2010 1 Survey Study on Accessing and Evaluating the public opinion on the usage of UC Berkeley Campus Bus Shuttles Kehsun Lin ABSTRACT Public transportation systems provide many benefits to the general public; however, declining use of urban public transportation in developed countries is a major problem for many transit agencies. Identifying psychological factors associated with customer satisfaction in public transportation systems can inform policies designed to increase ridership. While the UC Berkeley campus bus shuttles are a convenient and free means of travel around campus, many students, staff, and faculty do not use them. To identify the factors behind the willingness to ride Berkeley campus shuttles, I assessed the opinions of frequent and non-frequent student, staff, and faculty riders and non-riders on their use of UC Berkeley campus bus shuttles using surveys. I found that improvement in bus service reliability was the most important factor influencing the willingness to ride for both frequent and non-frequent users. I also found that non-frequent value the off-bus services 17 percent more than the frequent bus users. Moreover, many non-riders do not use the campus bus shuttles because they that it is feel convenient enough to walk or bike to school. I conclude that campus bus shuttles should schedule and publicize bus schedules more effectively, in order to increase bus ridership at UC Berkeley. Livetrack technology and bus traffic priority light can be adopted to improve the overall ridership of campus bus shuttles. This study serves as a starting point for further studies. KEYWORDS Public transportation, service quality, bus policies, transit ridership, customer satisfaction.Kehsun Lin UC Berkeley Campus Bus Shuttles Spring 2010 2 INTRODUCTION Public transportation systems provide mobility options for urban travelers, reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, air and noise pollution, mitigate traffic, and improve energy efficiency (American Public Transportation Association 2007). They can also play a key role in increasing urban population density, allowing for reduced travel distances, fossil fuel consumption, and per capita energy consumption (Barletta et al. 2009). But declining use of urban public transportation in developed countries (Hensher 1998) is a major problem for many transit agencies such as the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (Taylor et al. 1998). Due to declining state and local funding, more than sixty percent of public transportation systems in the U.S. have cut services, while nearly two-thirds have eliminated some off-peak services and almost half have reduced geographic coverage (American Public Transportation Association 2009). In response to concerns that declining public transportation quality and service might decrease customer satisfaction and transit ridership, transit companies recently have focused on service quality to increase customer satisfaction and attract riders (Eboli and Mazulla 2007). Identifying psychological factors associated with customer satisfactions in public transportation systems can inform policies designed to increase ridership. Perceived bus quality influences customer satisfaction (Eboli and Mazulla 2007), and passengers’ willingness to reuse buses depends on their previous ridership experience (Jen and Hu 2003). Studies examining transit ridership during the 1990s showed that service quality and amenity improvements, such as adding bus stop shelters and increasing bus frequencies, enhanced user experience and increased ridership for 25 percent of U.S. transit systems (Hess et al. 2002). Transit managers perceive that service improvements and information availability programs increase ridership, while their opinions on other factors affecting changes in ridership patterns vary widely (Hess et al. 2002). A recent study of private transportation users concerning the psychological determinants of decisions to use public buses in Ho Chi Ming City, Vietnam concludes that potential riders would be more inclined to use buses if there were more frequent bus service and fewer negative rider experiences (Fujii and Van 2009). Thus, study of the psychological factors associated with ridership preferences is a valuable means of determining how to increase use of public transit. Understanding riders’ view on bus reliability (e.g., bus punctuality), on-bus service quality (e.g., driver attitude and behavior), off-bus service quality (e.g., information at bus stop), andKehsun Lin UC Berkeley Campus Bus Shuttles Spring 2010 3 safety and security measures (e.g., bus driving safety) can be useful in developing policies intended to improve rider experience and increase ridership. Countries such as Australia have raised ridership significantly through bus service reliability improvements and frequency enhancements (Currie and Wallis 2008). ‘Soft’ bus vehicle improvements focusing on security, comfort, and amenities, on-bus safety, and on-bus service also influence bus ridership (Currie and Wallis 2008), while frequency and reliability improvements have been the top two priorities in efforts to increase ridership in Europe (Currie and Wallis 2008). Thus, service reliability is key to high bus patronage growth, while on-bus service quality such as exterior and interior cleanliness, off-bus services such as marketing and advertising, and safety measures are also valuable in developing policies that can increase ridership. No studies have considered all four factors in the same place. Moreover, many past studies focused on several factors affecting ridership, but none consider the factors that motivate the non-frequent users to ride the bus more. While the University of California, Berkeley campus bus shuttles are a convenient and free means of travel around campus, many students, staff, and faculty do not use them. In Fall 2005, only 7.2 percent of undergraduate and graduate students used campus bus shuttles, and they used AC transit buses 6.4 percent more often than the UC Berkeley campus bus shuttles (UC Berkeley's Parking & Transportation Services 2005). No studies have been conducted to identify the definitive reasons for such low percentage ridership on the UC Berkeley campus bus shuttles. This provides an opportunity to conduct a comprehensive study of all four key factors effecting bus ridership at University of California, Berkeley. To
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