Evaluating the quality of the public transport service during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perception of two user groups

Karzan Ismael; Domokos Esztergár-Kiss; Szabolcs Duleba

doi:10.1186/s12544-023-00578-1

Evaluating the quality of the public transport service during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perception of two user groups

Eur Transp Res Rev. 2023;15(1):5. doi: 10.1186/s12544-023-00578-1. Epub 2023 Mar 9.

Authors

Karzan Ismael^{1

2}, Domokos Esztergár-Kiss¹, Szabolcs Duleba^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Transport Technology and Economics (KUKG), Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering (KJK), Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Műegyetem rkp. 3., Budapest, 1111 Hungary.
² Department of City Planning Engineering, Technical College of Engineering, Sulaimani Polytechnic University, Sulaimani, 46001 Iraq.
³ Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Nyíregyháza, Nyíregyháza, Hungary.

Abstract

The current paper focuses on a comparative analysis of both public transport (PT) and private vehicle (PV) users' perceptions on the quality of the service. To detect the key components of PT attributes a new hybrid methodology is applied, combining the importance-performance analysis and the importance-performance map analysis. The proposed hybrid approach is simpler and more integrated than the existing methods in the literature. The sample comprises an online panel and a total of 1028 questionnaires for PV and PT users surveyed during the pandemic period in Budapest. The results of the applied methods show that among the different groups, the service hour, the proximity, and the frequency attributes are important and performed well in the years of COVID-19. On the other hand, the temperature and the cleanliness factors are not significant predictors of the PV and PT users' general satisfaction. The obtained results can be used by local governments and authorities, who seek to identify areas to enhance the service quality of PT during movement restrictions in a pandemic wave.

Keywords: COVID-19; IPA; IPMA; Public transport; Service quality; Travel satisfaction.