Modelling willingness to pay for improved public transport services: The challenges of non-response to stated preference hypothetical questions

The paper focuses on the modelling attempt of willingness to pay for an improved bus service in selected cities and towns of Malaysia. Using responses from onboard intercept surveys, 1,130 samples of bus passengers have been analysed so as to arrive at a simplified model of how passengers trade off their money with possible upgrading of bus services elements. The willingness to pay among these bus riders was very low, despite the high expectation of improvements aspired by them. For service providers, fares are a function of travel time, travel distance and other operating costs. For passengers, the utility function is explained by costs, time, distance and various latent parameters. This paper highlights the significant results of chi-square analysis at various confidence levels. However, modelling the exact utility function of preferences for staggered increased in fares could not be carried out successfully at 95 percent confidence level, due to the relatively small number of respondents stating their and/or undecided response to willingness to pay for the additional fare rate. The issue of non-response to hypothetical survey questions is also raised, explaining the difficulties in modelling this choice behaviour

Modelling willingness to pay for improved public transport services: the challenges of non-response to stated preference hypothetical questions

The paper focuses on the modelling attempt of willingness to pay for an improved bus service in selected cities and towns of Malaysia. Using responses from onboard intercept surveys, 1,130 samples of bus passengers have been analysed so as to arrive at a simplified model of how passengers trade off their money with possible upgrading of bus services elements. The willingness to pay among these bus riders was very low, despite the high expectation of improvements aspired by them. For service providers, fares are a function of travel time, travel distance and other operating costs. For passengers, the utility function is explained by costs, time, distance and various latent parameters. This paper highlights the significant results of chi-square analysis at various confidence levels. However, modelling the exact utility function of preferences for staggered increased in fares could not be carried out successfully at 95 percent confidence level, due to the relatively small number of respondents stating their and/or undecided response to willingness to pay for the additional fare rate. The issue of non-response to hypothetical survey questions is also raised, explaining the difficulties in modelling this choice behaviour

Level of services (Los) for public bus and passengers aspiration in Kerian district, Malaysia

Public transportation facilitates the mobility of activities and goods from all sustainable development key dimensions. Over the past decades, more trips of public transportation move people towards a more sustainable future, by reducing congestion on the roads and increasing the efficiency of the road system. The research aims at analysing the passenger’s aspiration and perspective of sustainable public transport measure and evaluating Malaysian rural bus services, using the case study of Kerian District in the state of Perak. On-board intercept passenger survey and adoption of Geographical Information System (GIS) / Global Positioning System (GPS) were used to collect the primary data. The research suggested that whilst the services levels are less than those aspired by the passengers, there are many improvement areas to be prioritised in the near future. Keywords: Sustainable transportation; sustainable transport indicator; transport planning; sustainable transportation dimension; passenger’s aspiration. eISSN 2398-4279 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

Integrated land use-transportation approach in controlling the growth of urban sprawl using remote sensing and GIS application

Integrated land use-transportation approach in urban planning has provided a new direction in urban sprawl studies. The spatial analysis of the current land use will provide an insight of the development density and the effect of active transportation activities on urban sprawl growth. This paper focuses on the integrated land use-transportation approach in controlling the urban sprawl by assimilating the application of remote sensing and GIS with Land Use Geospatial Indices (LUGI). Remote sensing and GIS is applied in measuring the phases of urban sprawl growth focusing on the aspect of the land use-transportation relationship. Two components of LUGI; 1) strip sprawl and 2) leapfrog development sprawl are designated to measure the spatial interruption caused by the urban sprawl. Strip and leapfrog analyses are useful in determining the existence of urban sprawl from the transportation perspectives. Transportation elements of road hierarchy and geometric, as well as transportation infrastructure are included as variables in the measurement process to validate the indication of both types of sprawl. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is chosen as the study area. Currently, the city served as capital and premier location that accommodates the regional headquarters of national and multinational business companies. Thus, the rapid population growth has contributed to the growth of urban sprawl in Kuala Lumpur, yet there are no substantial measures to identify the type, pattern and how to kerb it. The findings proved that Kuala Lumpur is currently facing the urban sprawl issues pertinent to the two components of LUGI calculated. These geospatial indices sprawl not only occurred at the city fringe but currently transpired within the city as well. The integrated land use-transportation approach is necessary for controlling the settlement development within the city to reduce the sprawling effects to the land use density and transportation system

Service catchment of mass rapid transit (MRT) feeder bus: a preliminary study of T461 route Taman Kajang Utama

The planning and development of rail services require various considerations. Land availability, land use, catchment, route matching, infrastructure fitting, barrier free and micro-climate friendly designs are some of the factors heeded prior to such installations. A deviation between designated and highly demanded service area in urban sprawl zones of the city has been occurring in many Malaysian cities. These gaps have led to the mismatch between origin/destination of passengers and planned locations of train stations and its feeder bus stops. As such, rail services become less accessible to populations with the highest demands. This paper discusses the preliminary findings from a pilot study which seeks to calibrate the research instrument and validate preliminary findings before actual data collection for the purpose of determining the service catchment of the T461 feeder bus in Kajang MRT Station. The Garmin GPS device acts as the research instrument to obtain coordinates of locations where passengers board and alight feeder buses. On-board surveys and comparison analyses are methods that have been used to obtain the optimum GPS coordinates of the bus stop locations. The preliminary findings indicate that the research instrument is ready to be used for actual data collection and geospatial analysis to determine the service catchment of the T461 feeder bus service

The traffic volume and Level of Service (LOS) of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Serdang campus main access

The inbound and outbound traffic flow characteristic of a campus is an important physical component of overall university setting. The traffic circulation generated may create indirect effects on the environment such as, disturbance to lecture time when traffic congestion occurs during peak-hours, loss of natural environment and greenery, degradation of the visual environment by improper or illegal parking, air pollution from motorized vehicles either moving or in idle mode due to traffic congestion, noise pollution, energy consumption, land use arrangement and health effects on the community of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Serdang. A traffic volume and Level of Service (LOS) study is required to facilitate better accessibility and improves the road capacity within the campus area. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the traffic volume and Level of Service of the main access the UPM Serdang campus. A traffic survey was conducted over three (3) weekdays during an active semester to understand the traffic flow pattern. The findings on traffic flow during peak hours are highlighted. The conclusions of on-campus traffic flow patterns are also draw

Vehicle – pedestrian conflict: a case study in Universiti Putra Malaysia

Vehicle-pedestrian conflict is a commonly unsafe event that occurs in both urban and rural areas, especially in developing countries. It is still an open research topic, mostly in traffic safety and urban planning, which is utilised for evaluating the behaviours of vehicles and pedestrians at a non-signalised marked walkway. Three stations were selected based on higher daily activities to calculate the regularity of pedestrian movement. A manual calculation method was applied, and the calculation was done only during the daytime. Three different teams were formed to obtain the measurements at the three different sampling points simultaneously. A present study on preliminary vehicle-pedestrian conflict reveals the frequency of pedestrians in a concentrated area and its Level of Service (LOS) in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Serdang. The findings show that rush hour occurs during the mid-day in weekday, when students have finished their classes and adults have gone out for other businesses

An assessment of public transport features in urban and rural settlements in Malaysia

This paper focuses on assessing the features of bus services offered in selected urban and rural settlements in Malaysia. Five definitions of public transport level of services (LOS) according to Transportation Research Board are adopted. Assessment of the LOS has been conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods of primary and secondary data capture. With a sample of more than 1000 passengers surveyed, the demand side’s perception and aspiration have been collected and analyzed based on the classification of LOS. The overall performance measured in urban and rural were LOS E, which is below the tolerable standard of LOS D. In analyzing the satisfaction levels among the urban and rural passengers, it was found that the majority of the respondents (60.4%) were dissatisfied with the services in both urban and rural areas. Further recommendations are to bridge these gaps by increasing headways, locating designated bus stops or halts at strategic catchment points of alighting and dropping off as well as revised maintenance scheduling and consistent repair of the existing fleet. Finally, operators may also improve on-board comfort and convenient levels as aspired by the passengers. This can be commensurate by the willingness of passengers to pay higher fare rates for the increased quality of such services

Sustainable urban public transportation system in Malaysia a comparison of bus services in Kuantan and Penang

Transportation refers to the mobility of activities and goods from all economic sectors. Transportation is the key towards sustaining goods, services and people mobility in economic activities. Public buses in Malaysia, in general, and Kuantan and Penang, in particular, have faced many challenges, including dwindling number of passengers. This research focuses on the passengers’ perspective of the bus services from the aspects of frequency, travel time, as well as comfort and convenience. It aims at analysing passengers’ aspiration and perspectives of sustainable urban public transport and focuses on the assessment of Malaysian urban bus services within selected areas in Kuantan and Penang. Satisfaction of the current patronage is assessed against several measurements. Buses function as feeders to these socioeconomic traffic generators on a daily basis, especially for commuters. Thus, comparison of sustenance of passengers is also made of both Kuantan and Penang users. The research found that some socio-demographic and trip characteristics indeed influenced the current satisfaction level of the passengers. Recommendations have been made to the bus operators to ensure future sustainability of urban stage bus services in Kuantan and Penang

Assessing disparities in the urban-rural service: a case of public bus services in Peninsular Malaysia

An understanding of bus service disparities between urban and rural settlements is necessary to provide the best approach to improving and providing an efficient public transportation system in the country. An efficient public transportation system will contribute towards sustainable economic growth and healthy social development of the district, which, in turn, will ensure human security in respect of the mobility of goods and services for today’s and future needs. However, limited studies that analyse theservice gap and local demand for the public bus service in Peninsular Malaysia have been conducted. The improvement in bus service reliability depends on several parameters including the route coverage and schedule. This study presents an empirical analysis of the fixed-route hour level of service (LOS) for urban and rural bus services to understand the level of reliability and quality of the service provided. A field survey was conducted to collect the secondary data concerning the bus routes and schedules from the local bus operators. Through a sampling survey of bus lines in selected urban and rural settlements in Peninsular Malaysia, service reliability based on the fixed-route hour service is evaluated. A total of nine (9) bus companies with a total of48 routes were selected to represent nine (9) bus terminals operating in Johor, Penang, Pahang and Perak. Johor represents the southern states, while Penang represents the northern states. For the east-coast states, Pahang is selected, while Perak represents a still developing state, which is yet to reach the advanced level of large conurbations. The distance of a bus route from the origin to the destination is also analysed. A standard service quality measure is referred to in determining the level of service (LOS) and for identifying the service disparities between urban and rural settlements. The results indicate that the LOS for the fixed-route hour of bus services in the rural areas range from C to D and B to E in the urban settlement. The recommendations put forward include the improvement of real-time scheduling of buses, expansion of service hours and revised fare systems to ensure the future sustainability of the urban and rural bus services in Malaysia