IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v101y2021icp81-88.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding public transport satisfaction in post COVID-19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Dong, Hongming
  • Ma, Shoufeng
  • Jia, Ning
  • Tian, Junfang

Abstract

The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic will linger for an extended period, although it is under control and public transport is gradually resuming its operations. However, there is limited understanding of passengers' construal regarding this public health crisis and their perceptions of safety and feelings of satisfaction toward public transport after suffering through the spread of such an infectious disease. Therefore, the aim of this research is to understand passengers' psychological responses to the pandemic over time in terms of their emotional arousal and mental construal, as public transport begins to resume its operations with the pandemic almost entirely contained. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in eight cities of China where the public transport system had been temporally closed because of the pandemic. The results indicated that (1) passengers' feelings of safety enhanced their overall satisfaction with regard to public transport, (2) state anxiety has a negative effect on perceived safety, (3) state anxiety increases as passengers are psychologically closer to the pandemic, and (4) passengers pay more attention to information that is psychologically closer to the pandemic and perceive lesser safety on public transport. These findings not only reveal the internal mechanisms behind how passengers perceive safety but may also provide significant information for future disaster emergency management. Based on the results, some feasible suggestions are proposed to avoid the loss of ridership and help public transport systems recover from the crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Dong, Hongming & Ma, Shoufeng & Jia, Ning & Tian, Junfang, 2021. "Understanding public transport satisfaction in post COVID-19 pandemic," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 81-88.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:101:y:2021:i:c:p:81-88
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.12.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X20309410
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.12.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Redman, Lauren & Friman, Margareta & Gärling, Tommy & Hartig, Terry, 2013. "Quality attributes of public transport that attract car users: A research review," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 119-127.
    2. Nathanail, Eftihia, 2008. "Measuring the quality of service for passengers on the hellenic railways," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 48-66, January.
    3. Alexa Spence & Wouter Poortinga & Nick Pidgeon, 2012. "The Psychological Distance of Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(6), pages 957-972, June.
    4. Stradling, Stephen & Carreno, Michael & Rye, Tom & Noble, Allyson, 2007. "Passenger perceptions and the ideal urban bus journey experience," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 283-292, July.
    5. Eboli, Laura & Mazzulla, Gabriella, 2011. "A methodology for evaluating transit service quality based on subjective and objective measures from the passenger's point of view," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 172-181, January.
    6. Diana Mok & Barry Wellman & Juan Carrasco, 2010. "Does Distance Matter in the Age of the Internet?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(13), pages 2747-2783, November.
    7. Charlotte Jones & Donald W. Hine & Anthony D. G. Marks, 2017. "The Future is Now: Reducing Psychological Distance to Increase Public Engagement with Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 331-341, February.
    8. Leonie Huddy & Stanley Feldman & Charles Taber & Gallya Lahav, 2005. "Threat, Anxiety, and Support of Antiterrorism Policies," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(3), pages 593-608, July.
    9. Allen, Jaime & Muñoz, Juan Carlos & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2019. "Understanding public transport satisfaction: Using Maslow's hierarchy of (transit) needs," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 75-94.
    10. Allen, Jaime & Eboli, Laura & Forciniti, Carmen & Mazzulla, Gabriella & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2019. "The role of critical incidents and involvement in transit satisfaction and loyalty," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 57-69.
    11. Shiwakoti, Nirajan & Stasinopoulos, Peter & Vincec, Paul & Qian, Weidong & Hafsar, Renan, 2019. "Exploring how perceptive differences impact the current public transport usage and support for future public transport extension and usage: A case study of Melbourne's tramline extension," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 12-23.
    12. Savage, Ian, 2013. "Comparing the fatality risks in United States transportation across modes and over time," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 9-22.
    13. Ingvardson, Jesper Bláfoss & Nielsen, Otto Anker, 2019. "The relationship between norms, satisfaction and public transport use: A comparison across six European cities using structural equation modelling," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 37-57.
    14. Delbosc, Alexa & Currie, Graham, 2012. "Modelling the causes and impacts of personal safety perceptions on public transport ridership," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 302-309.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Celik, Erkan & Aydin, Nezir & Gumus, Alev Taskin, 2014. "A multiattribute customer satisfaction evaluation approach for rail transit network: A real case study for Istanbul, Turkey," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 283-293.
    2. de Oña, Juan, 2020. "The role of involvement with public transport in the relationship between service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intentions," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 296-318.
    3. Carreira, Rui & Patrício, Lia & Natal Jorge, Renato & Magee, Chris & Van Eikema Hommes, Qi, 2013. "Towards a holistic approach to the travel experience: A qualitative study of bus transportation," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 233-243.
    4. Ittamalla, Rajesh & Srinivas Kumar, Daruri Venkata, 2021. "Determinants of holistic passenger experience in public transportation: Scale development and validation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    5. Mahmood Mahmoodi Nesheli & Avishai (Avi) Ceder & Robin Brissaud, 2017. "Public transport service-quality elements based on real-time operational tactics," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(5), pages 957-975, September.
    6. Weng, JianCheng & Yu, JiangBo & Di, XiaoJian & Lin, PengFei & Wang, Jing-Jing & Mao, Li-Zeng, 2023. "How does the state of bus operations influence passengers’ service satisfaction? A method considering the differences in passenger preferences," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    7. Wan, Dan & Kamga, Camille & Liu, Jun & Sugiura, Aaron & Beaton, Eric B., 2016. "Rider perception of a “light” Bus Rapid Transit system - The New York City Select Bus Service," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 41-55.
    8. Aydin, Nezir & Celik, Erkan & Gumus, Alev Taskin, 2015. "A hierarchical customer satisfaction framework for evaluating rail transit systems of Istanbul," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 61-81.
    9. Shuhao Zhao & Yumo Ni & Shunzhang Sun & Tian’ao Chang, 2023. "Passenger Satisfaction Evaluation and Achieving Sustainable Integrated Urban Transport: Structural Equation Analysis Based on Macau Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    10. Rong, Rui & Liu, Lishan & Jia, Ning & Ma, Shoufeng, 2022. "Impact analysis of actual traveling performance on bus passenger’s perception and satisfaction," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 80-100.
    11. Agyeman, Stephen & Cheng, Lin, 2020. "Analysis of barriers to perceived service quality in Ghana: Students’ perspectives on bus mobility attributes," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 63-85.
    12. Aydin, Nezir, 2017. "A fuzzy-based multi-dimensional and multi-period service quality evaluation outline for rail transit systems," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 87-98.
    13. Salonen, Arto O., 2018. "Passenger's subjective traffic safety, in-vehicle security and emergency management in the driverless shuttle bus in Finland," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 106-110.
    14. Pengxiang Ding & Suwei Feng & Jianning Jiang, 2023. "The Impact of Urban Rail Transit Epidemic Prevention Measures on Passengers’ Safety Perception," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-17, February.
    15. Karzan Ismael & Szabolcs Duleba, 2021. "Investigation of the Relationship between the Perceived Public Transport Service Quality and Satisfaction: A PLS-SEM Technique," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-20, November.
    16. Yuning Wang & Zhe Zhang & Mengyuan Zhu & Hexian Wang, 2020. "The Impact of Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction on Reuse Intention in Urban Rail Transit in Tianjin, China," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440198, January.
    17. Carreira, Rui & Patrício, Lia & Natal Jorge, Renato & Magee, Chris, 2014. "Understanding the travel experience and its impact on attitudes, emotions and loyalty towards the transportation provider–A quantitative study with mid-distance bus trips," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 35-46.
    18. Juan Oña & Rocío Oña, 2023. "Is it possible to attract private vehicle users towards public transport? Understanding the key role of service quality, satisfaction and involvement on behavioral intentions," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 1073-1101, June.
    19. Alessandro Vitale & Giuseppe Guido & Daniele Rogano, 2016. "A smartphone based DSS platform for assessing transit service attributes," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 315-340, September.
    20. Liang-Chu Ho & Yu-Hsien Sung & Chia-Chun Wu & Pei-Shan Lee & Wen-Bin Chiou, 2020. "Envisaging Mitigation Action Can Induce Lower Discounting toward Future Environmental Gains and Promote Pro-Environmental Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-12, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:101:y:2021:i:c:p:81-88. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.