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Where is the happy transit rider? Evaluating satisfaction with regional rail service using a spatial segmentation approach

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  • Grisé, Emily
  • El-Geneidy, Ahmed

Abstract

Public transit agencies are delivering transport services in a rapidly changing and highly competitive transportation market. Ensuring rider’s satisfaction in such an environment has led several public transit agencies to adopt different marketing strategies. For example, market segmentation analyses are commonly employed by transit agencies to identify groups of users, which are subsequently used as a base for developing policies and strategies aimed at improving customer satisfaction. However, previous studies adopting this market segmentation approach have predominantly ignored spatial and contextual factors related to the transit network and the built environment of where a user resides, resulting in network-wide policies that are difficult to implement especially for agencies with scarce resources. This study presents a new segmentation approach that incorporates spatial and contextual factors in addition to other rider’s preferences and satisfaction levels with commuter rail service in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Canada. Including these factors in a market segmentation analysis has enabled us to recommend service interventions at a local and finer scale compared to previous studies, while at the same time providing the greatest impact on a specified segment of riders. This research provides transit planners and policy makers with a spatial segmentation approach, which can be used to maximize the benefits of service improvements intended to increase satisfaction with public transit among certain groups of users in a region.

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  • Grisé, Emily & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2018. "Where is the happy transit rider? Evaluating satisfaction with regional rail service using a spatial segmentation approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 84-96.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:114:y:2018:i:pa:p:84-96
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2017.11.005
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    5. Eldeeb, Gamal & Mohamed, Moataz, 2022. "Consumers oriented investments in transit service quality improvements: The best bang for your buck," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
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    7. Deka, Devajyoti & Carnegie, Jon, 2021. "Predicting transit mode choice of New Jersey workers commuting to New York City from a stated preference survey," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Chakrabarti, Sandip, 2022. "Passively wait for gridlock, or proactively invest in service? Strategies to promote car-to-transit switches among aspirational urbanites in rapidly developing contexts," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 251-261.
    9. Gamal Eldeeb & Moataz Mohamed, 2020. "Understanding the Transit Market: A Persona-Based Approach for Preferences Quantification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-20, May.
    10. Yixue Zhang & Steven Farber & Mischa Young, 2022. "Eliminating barriers to nighttime activity participation: the case of on-demand transit in Belleville, Canada," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(5), pages 1385-1408, October.
    11. Eldeeb, Gamal & Mohamed, Moataz, 2020. "Quantifying preference heterogeneity in transit service desired quality using a latent class choice model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 119-133.

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