Identifying Existing Bus Service Condition and Analyzing Customer Satisfaction of Bus Service in Dhaka City

Abstract

Bus systems provide a versatile form of public transportation with the flexibility to serve a variety of access needs throughout an urban area. Efficient operation of the public transport is a key factor for the improvement of living condition in Dhaka city. Transport service performance should be assessed from the passengers’ perspectives to evaluate these perceptions in transportation planning. The exploration of service quality of bus is essential in order to provide a better service in future. The objective of this research is to access overall customer satisfaction in public bus transport of Dhaka city. A questionnaire survey was conducted in five locations in Dhaka city. Bus users’ satisfaction was analyzed by discrete choice logit model towards quality, reliability, safety and security and service provided by buses functioning in Dhaka city. The result indicated that more than half of the respondents believed that the present condition of bus service is not satisfactory. In case of the quality of buses, people think that the body and sitting arrangement of the buses are uncomfortable. Regarding the safety and security condition, main three reasons of dissatisfaction of passengers’ are unsafe driving practices, poor boarding and alighting facilities and lack of law enforcing agencies surveillance. Reasons which make the service unsatisfactory include irregular service provided by buses, regular overcrowding, lack of good standard buses and lack of cleanliness. In spite of these negative views, users’ possessed a positive attitude for buses which is the low travel cost.