Predicting and Analyzing Bus Service Quality in Dhaka City by Choice Model

Bus as a means of transport plays a crucial role in Dhaka city. For being the cheapest means of transport, people rely heavily on bus service. Although people use the available bus service, they are not satisfied with the provided service. Considering the present and future condition of bus service, it is very important to assess the existing bus service and improve its service quality (SQ). This study aims to investigate key service factors influencing the bus SQ in Dhaka city by choice model. For this study, two step methodologies were followed where the first step was to collect data by questionnaire survey and the second step was to develop the model. An interview survey was done at 15 major locations of Dhaka city. The questionnaire had a total 40 service attributes, divided into 7 main parts including ‘trip characteristics’, ‘quality of service’, ‘quality of bus’, ‘quality of bus stop’, ‘safety and security of bus’, ‘staff behavior’ and ‘reliability and accessibility of bus’. In the second step, Ordered Probit Model (OPM) was developed. Result indicates that ‘Seat comfort level’, ‘Physical condition of bus’ and ‘Paying fare/Ticketing system’ was the most important and key service attributes influencing bus SQ. The result from the study will be convenient to the bus service providers as it will let them know the improvement opportunities for enhancing bus SQ. Furthermore, findings from this research can be employed to develop rules and regulations to improve bus SQ in developing cities.