Findings from measuring door-to-door travellers’ travel satisfaction with traditional and smartphone app survey methods in eight European cities

This study investigates how different travel satisfaction survey methods influence the reported level of door-to-door travel satisfaction among travellers. The travel satisfaction measurement survey tools tested consisted of two types of smartphone applications (a satellite navigation app and a game app), an on-line survey, a paper-based semi-structured questionnaire and a focus group. Each of the measurement tools comprised of a similar set of questions, but in different formats, aimed at exploring the pros and cons of each tool among different group of travellers. In total, 5,275 valid responses were collected during the survey period from eight European cities and five FIA (Federation Internationale de I'Automobile) national motorist networks. The analysis results, with ordered logit model of travellers' reported overall satisfaction, showed that the travel satisfaction reported by different survey methods and different travel modes and user groups, correlated with distinct groups of key determinants. The relationship between and within these key determinants, however, was far from straight forward. Some were more complex than others. Some issues, such as parking availability and security, that are mostly discussed by policy makers and users may not be the ones that directly correlate with the users' overall travel satisfactions. Consistent with previous studies, the travellers' mood and previous experience influenced the reported overall journey satisfaction

The role of EUROCONTROL in the adoption of new technologies and its reaction in the process of standardisation related to air transport with a focus on a vision 2050

The field of air transport governance is dynamic and changing quite rapidly. This article analyses the European system of air traffic management (ATM) as a specific case study of EU regulation of standardisation and how it is changing towards a modernisation of the entire system. The creation of the single European sky is a growing area of EU policy, which shows the potential and difficulties of coordinating national competence, with the aim of boosting the efficiency of air transport in Europe. The application of the standardisation process will be extended to EUROCONTROL with a focus on its role in the adoption of new technologies and its reaction in the process of standardisation related to air transport up to 2050

An in-depth assessment of the underlying dimensions of the perceived quality of transport services: the METPEX project

The measurement of the quality of transport services has been the object of an intensive research activity in the last decades. The EU project METPEX aims at advancing the state of the art in this crucial research area by focusing on current research gaps and less explored issues. To achieve this goal, a targeted survey covering the above aspects has been implemented in late 2014 in eight European cities. More than 6300 observations have been gathered through several different protocols, ranging from traditional face to face or self-administered surveys to gaming apps and tracking through a crowd-sourcing interactive navigator. This wide dataset is then analysed to find measurement models through the identification of latent constructs that can measure the quality of the traveller experience. In this paper, we concentrate on the identification of the underlying dimensions of perceived quality. These were elicited in a specific section of the questionnaire by pre-defining 21 quality aspects and then administering to each respondent a set of questions focusing on only one of such aspects. Our goal is therefore the search for latent factors hidden within such sets of questions that could more thoroughly represent the corresponding aspects. We apply a Principal Component Analysis to find the most important components and to see which quality issues hide latent factors that can give deeper information on the users’ perception. The preliminary analyses presented in this paper are part of a wider work whose goal is not to just build a model from the data, but to identify those aspects of the service which influence the overall passenger experience. In fact, additional sets of indicators will be defined through the techniques used here for both public transport and active means, and for different user groups. Thanks to this work, a useful guidance to policy makers and stakeholders could be provided in order to encourage more virtuous travel behaviours with a more integrated approach

An in-depth assessment of the underlying dimensions of the perceived quality of transport services: the METPEX project

The measurement of the quality of transport services has been the object of an intensive research activity in the last decades. The EU project METPEX aims at advancing the state of the art in this crucial research area by focusing on current research gaps and less explored issues. To achieve this goal, a targeted survey covering the above aspects has been implemented in late 2014 in eight European cities. More than 6300 observations have been gathered through several different protocols, ranging from traditional face to face or self-administered surveys to gaming apps and tracking through a crowd-sourcing interactive navigator. This wide dataset is then analysed to find measurement models through the identification of latent constructs that can measure the quality of the traveller experience. In this paper, we concentrate on the identification of the underlying dimensions of perceived quality. These were elicited in a specific section of the questionnaire by pre-defining 21 quality aspects and then administering to each respondent a set of questions focusing on only one of such aspects. Our goal is therefore the search for latent factors hidden within such sets of questions that could more thoroughly represent the corresponding aspects. We apply a Principal Component Analysis to find the most important components and to see which quality issues hide latent factors that can give deeper information on the users’ perception. The preliminary analyses presented in this paper are part of a wider work whose goal is not to just build a model from the data, but to identify those aspects of the service which influence the overall passenger experience. In fact, additional sets of indicators will be defined through the techniques used here for both public transport and active means, and for different user groups. Thanks to this work, a useful guidance to policy makers and stakeholders could be provided in order to encourage more virtuous travel behaviours with a more integrated approach