Importance of user perception in evaluating level of service for bus transit for a developing country like India: a review

Abstract

Assessment of service quality in bus transit planning has received due attention in recent years from the viewpoint of optimal service allocation. The concept of level of service (LOS) has emerged as an effective tool to measure quality of services. Service-quality assessment provides operators with knowledge on users' satisfaction with existing services and their expected LOSs. The importance of user perception towards assessment of LOS has been acknowledged by researchers. While LOS standards for public transportation have been established by the Transportation Research Board in the USA, researchers have questioned the applicability of these standards in the context of different geographic regions. Since the service delivery environment differs between developed and developing nations, the user perception of service quality varies between these economic regions. Substantial research has been carried out in the context of both developed and developing nations, to identify the bus transit service parameters that affect users' perceived service quality; however, little research exists that establishes LOS thresholds for bus transit, based on user perception. This paper reviews the concept of LOS, describes the importance of user perception in assessment of service quality and identifies the need to establish LOS thresholds for bus transit from user perception for developing countries.

Keywords:

• level of service
• user perception
• expert opinion
• bus transit
• developing countries

Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely thank the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, for providing the necessary facilities and opportunities to prepare this review paper and also the Ministry of Human Resource & Development (MHRD), India, for funding the research programme carried out in the institute. The authors would also like to thank the reviewers for their valuable inputs that helped to improve this paper.