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Fostering Happiness Among Public Transit Users: Analyzing Customer Satisfaction Surveys Through Non-Traditional Approaches

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Fostering Happiness Among Public Transit Users: Analyzing Customer Satisfaction Surveys Through Non-Traditional Approaches Fostering happiness among public transit users: Analyzing customer satisfaction surveys through non-traditional approaches Emily Grisé School of Urban Planning McGill University March 7, 2019 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of: PhD in Urban Planning © Copyright Emily Grisé, 2019. 1 ACKOWLEDGMENTS The completion of my PhD has been quite an experience, and there are many acknowledgements that I would like to make to recognize the support I have received during this journey. First, I wish to acknowledge my supervisor Professor Ahmed El-Geneidy, as with his continuous support I am thrilled to be completing my PhD with such a level of pride in the work I generated as well as to graduate in such a timely manner. His devotion to students is unlike any professor I have met and has certainly made a profound impact on my personal and professional development. I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to be a part of the Transportation Research at McGill (TRAM) group, which Ahmed has made considerable efforts to foster a sense of community and a lab environment where students receive the needed encouragement and support to succeed. Second, I wish to thank the members of my PhD committee, Professor Madhav Badami, Professor David Wachsmuth, and Professor Nancy Ross, for their support, guidance and invaluable feedback. It was truly a pleasure to work with each of you! Additionally, I want to acknowledge the hard work of Gladys Chan and Paula Domingues, who were very helpful during my studies, as well as always providing a friendly face within the department. Lastly, thank you to the remaining faculty members within the School of Urban Planning for their support and helpful feedback. And of course, thanks to EMF staff, especially Shawn McCollum and Tony Fonsi, who were always available to help with all sorts of computer issues. Third, I must acknowledge that this research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, McGill Engineering Doctoral Awards, and a Schulich Research Fellowship. I also wish to knowledge additional support I am thankful for receiving during my studies, including the Transportation Association of Canada Foundation Scholarship and the Graduate Excellence Scholarship. Additionally, my research was made possible by the i following public transit agencies who shared their data for research purposes: Transport for London, GO Transit, and Translink. I also wish to acknowledge the team that I worked with to develop the McGill Travel Survey, in which I was able to add questions of interest for my dissertation: Marie-Pier Veillette, Robbin Deboosere and Professir Kevin Manaugh. Fourth, I wish to acknowledge my colleagues who I had the pleasure of working with over the past few years. In particular, Dea van Lierop for being a friend, helpful resource, mentor, and a pleasure to work with, and Geneviève Boisjoly; I am thankful for our friendship during the PhD and our many collaborations over the years, and hopefully many more going forward. To the students whom I worked with in TRAM over the years and my fellow PhD students, many thanks for being wonderful co-workers and friends. Lastly, to all my colleagues that I have met at various conferences or transport-related events, I am grateful for the network that I have developed and I look forward to many future collaborations. Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their continued support and encouragement. And I would like to thank my partner Marek Brys who was by my side during this long journey. His patience, eagerness to help, and words of encouragement were invaluable during the completion of my dissertation. And of course, my dog Bart, I thank you for lying beside me through hours of writing and for doing an excellent job at keeping me calm through some very long days and nights. Many others also share credit for making this dissertation possible, and I apologize to those temporarily forgotten and not mentioned above. ii ABSTRACT Customer satisfaction surveys are one of the most heavily utilized tools within the public transit industry to gain insight into the perceptions, attitudes and behaviours of customers. The efficacy of policies and service improvement strategies derived from satisfaction data are presently limited by the methodologies that are used to analyze this data. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to expand the understanding of public transit customer satisfaction through incorporating personal, spatial and contextual factors. This research goal will be achieved through answering the following research question: How can customer satisfaction data be effectively analyzed and utilized to generate targeted service quality improvements? This dissertation consists of four research objectives which are as follows: 1. To show differences in perceptions of service quality across different socioeconomic neighbourhoods in a highly competitive and well-monitored transit market; 2. To develop a transit market segmentation approach that includes personal, spatial and contextual factors; 3. To understand the extent to which transfers influence trip satisfaction; 4. To expand our understanding of how public transit performance measures can be integrated into satisfaction analyses to better predict overall satisfaction. The four research objectives each correspond to an analysis chapter comprising this manuscript- based dissertation. These chapters build on one another, and collectively aim to advance existing methods of analyzing customer satisfaction data for better knowledge of the transit market. The first two chapters of this dissertation present spatial methods of analyzing customer satisfaction data. Chapter two examines satisfaction with bus service across neighbourhoods of varying socio-economic status in London, UK. This spatial method allows agencies to identify areas for improvement at a more disaggregate level than previous research. The third chapter presents a new market segmentation approach that incorporates spatial and contextual factors that have not previously been incorporated into the practice of segmenting the transit market. This new method is demonstrated using a sample of commuter rail users in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Canada. The remaining two chapters demonstrate how contextual and operational data can be incorporated into satisfaction analyses. Chapter four explores the relationship between transferring iii and trip satisfaction using a survey of transit commuters to McGill University. In Chapter 5, satisfaction levels among users of a local and a limited-stop bus service in Vancouver, Canada are studied, while controlling for operational characteristics describing the service these users experienced, such as crowding and on-time performance. A concluding chapter consolidates the findings of the previous chapters and presents policy and research implications to support a better understanding of customer satisfaction. More specifically, this dissertation contributes to the knowledge in the following four ways: Identifies important shortcomings regarding how customer satisfaction data is analyzed; Develops reproducible methodologies to both integrate spatial data into the analysis of satisfaction levels, as well as to apply spatial analysis techniques to examine satisfaction with service at a local scale (i.e. the route or neighbourhood level); Demonstrates how detailed trip data can be applied to understand how specific service characteristics influence satisfaction levels; Shows how transit performance data can be integrated into satisfaction analyses to provide a more complete understanding of passenger satisfaction levels. As customers are the most important judges of service quality, this dissertation demonstrates how transit agencies can more effectively analyze customer perceptions of service as stated in satisfaction surveys and generate policies for service improvements that will have the strongest impact on riders. iv RÉSUMÉ Les enquêtes de satisfaction des usagers sont un des outils les plus utilisés dans le secteur des transports en commun pour mieux comprendre les perceptions, les attitudes et les comportements des voyageurs. L'efficacité des politiques et des stratégies d'amélioration du service conçues à partir des données de satisfaction est actuellement limitée par les méthodologies utilisées pour analyser ces données. L'objectif général de cette thèse est d’obtenir une meilleure compréhension de la satisfaction des usagers des transports en commun en intégrant des facteurs personnels, spatiaux et contextuels. L’objectif de cette étude vise à répondre à la question suivante : Comment analyser et utiliser efficacement les données relatives à la satisfaction des usagers pour développer des améliorations ciblées de la qualité du service? Cette thèse s’articule autour des quatre objectifs suivants : 1. Dévoiler les différences de perception relatives à la qualité du service entre des quartiers avec différents profils socio-économiques, dans un secteur très concurrentiel et étroitement réglementé ; 2. Développer une approche de segmentation du marché des transports en commun intégrant des facteurs personnels, spatiaux et contextuels ; 3. Comprendre dans quelle mesure les correspondances influencent le niveau de satisfaction du trajet ; 4. Obtenir une meilleure compréhension de la façon dont les mesures de performance des transports en commun peuvent être intégrées à l’analyse de la satisfaction
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