Towards Sustainable Public Transportation System : Accessibility and Service Quality of Public Buses in Kuching City, Sarawak

Public transportation sector plays an important role to ensure seamless connectivity and hence, increasing the number of public ridership towards achieving a sustainable nation. However, the issue of traffic congestion in developing countries including Malaysia, has posed negative social, environmen...

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Main Author:	Nor Amaleena, Binti Mazlan
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2019
Subjects:	H Social Sciences (General) HE Transportation and Communications
Online Access:	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27487/3/Towards%20Sustainable%20Public%20Transportation%20System.pdf
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spelling	my-unimas-ir.274872023-04-18T07:51:41Z Towards Sustainable Public Transportation System : Accessibility and Service Quality of Public Buses in Kuching City, Sarawak 2019-10-17 Nor Amaleena, Binti Mazlan H Social Sciences (General) HE Transportation and Communications Public transportation sector plays an important role to ensure seamless connectivity and hence, increasing the number of public ridership towards achieving a sustainable nation. However, the issue of traffic congestion in developing countries including Malaysia, has posed negative social, environmental and economic effects. The issues of inaccessibility of public transportation and low quality of services are often seen in major cities, including Kuching City in Sarawak. This study aims to assess the current public transportation system in terms of its accessibility and service quality by capturing the experiences of the commuters of public buses in Kuching City, in line with the concept of sustainable public transportation. The study adopts a mixed method approach; the quantitative approach involves assessing Public Transportation Accessibility Level (PTAL) based on the responses from the selected 140 commuters of public buses surveyed in Kuching City. A multi-dimensional research instrument (SERVQUAL) is also used to capture the commuters’ expectation and perception of public buses by assessing five dimensions of bus service quality, which are reliability, assurance, tangibility, empathy and responsiveness. In terms of qualitative method, case study approach is adopted, in which it includes in-depth interviews with both providers and commuters of public buses in Kuching City. The data collected are based on transportation accessibility and service quality experienced by the commuters; as well as the current situation and future plans for public buses’ system. In addition, the issues pertaining public transportation system faced by both commuters and public buses’ providers are also being analysed hence providing ways to improve current public transportation system towards sustainable transportation. The results of the PTAL assessment showed that Kuching has iv poor accessibility mainly due to the long waiting time experienced by the commuters of public transportation. In addition, the empathy dimension has the lowest score in service quality delivered by the public buses in all of the routes due to lack of physical facilities for the disabled persons. Meanwhile, responsiveness dimension scored the highest as there is a general consensus among the public bus commuters in regards to the ability of the bus companies to respond to their needs. The bus companies generally offer affordable bus fare to the passengers. In addition, the counter ticketing staffs and the bus drivers are very courteous in attending to the needs of the bus commuters. The findings of the study show that striving towards reducing waiting time among the public bus commuters and provision of adequate facilities that is inclusive are vital in order to improve the current image of public bus services which aims to have a more sustainable public transportation system in Kuching City, Sarawak. Keywords: Public transportation, sustainability, accessibility, service quality, Kuching Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2019-10 Thesis http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27487/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27487/3/Towards%20Sustainable%20Public%20Transportation%20System.pdf text en validuser masters Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
collection	UNIMAS Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	H Social Sciences (General) HE Transportation and Communications
spellingShingle	H Social Sciences (General) HE Transportation and Communications Nor Amaleena, Binti Mazlan Towards Sustainable Public Transportation System : Accessibility and Service Quality of Public Buses in Kuching City, Sarawak
description	Public transportation sector plays an important role to ensure seamless connectivity and hence, increasing the number of public ridership towards achieving a sustainable nation. However, the issue of traffic congestion in developing countries including Malaysia, has posed negative social, environmental and economic effects. The issues of inaccessibility of public transportation and low quality of services are often seen in major cities, including Kuching City in Sarawak. This study aims to assess the current public transportation system in terms of its accessibility and service quality by capturing the experiences of the commuters of public buses in Kuching City, in line with the concept of sustainable public transportation. The study adopts a mixed method approach; the quantitative approach involves assessing Public Transportation Accessibility Level (PTAL) based on the responses from the selected 140 commuters of public buses surveyed in Kuching City. A multi-dimensional research instrument (SERVQUAL) is also used to capture the commuters’ expectation and perception of public buses by assessing five dimensions of bus service quality, which are reliability, assurance, tangibility, empathy and responsiveness. In terms of qualitative method, case study approach is adopted, in which it includes in-depth interviews with both providers and commuters of public buses in Kuching City. The data collected are based on transportation accessibility and service quality experienced by the commuters; as well as the current situation and future plans for public buses’ system. In addition, the issues pertaining public transportation system faced by both commuters and public buses’ providers are also being analysed hence providing ways to improve current public transportation system towards sustainable transportation. The results of the PTAL assessment showed that Kuching has iv poor accessibility mainly due to the long waiting time experienced by the commuters of public transportation. In addition, the empathy dimension has the lowest score in service quality delivered by the public buses in all of the routes due to lack of physical facilities for the disabled persons. Meanwhile, responsiveness dimension scored the highest as there is a general consensus among the public bus commuters in regards to the ability of the bus companies to respond to their needs. The bus companies generally offer affordable bus fare to the passengers. In addition, the counter ticketing staffs and the bus drivers are very courteous in attending to the needs of the bus commuters. The findings of the study show that striving towards reducing waiting time among the public bus commuters and provision of adequate facilities that is inclusive are vital in order to improve the current image of public bus services which aims to have a more sustainable public transportation system in Kuching City, Sarawak. Keywords: Public transportation, sustainability, accessibility, service quality, Kuching
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Nor Amaleena, Binti Mazlan
author_facet	Nor Amaleena, Binti Mazlan
author_sort	Nor Amaleena, Binti Mazlan
title	Towards Sustainable Public Transportation System : Accessibility and Service Quality of Public Buses in Kuching City, Sarawak
title_short	Towards Sustainable Public Transportation System : Accessibility and Service Quality of Public Buses in Kuching City, Sarawak
title_full	Towards Sustainable Public Transportation System : Accessibility and Service Quality of Public Buses in Kuching City, Sarawak
title_fullStr	Towards Sustainable Public Transportation System : Accessibility and Service Quality of Public Buses in Kuching City, Sarawak
title_full_unstemmed	Towards Sustainable Public Transportation System : Accessibility and Service Quality of Public Buses in Kuching City, Sarawak
title_sort	towards sustainable public transportation system : accessibility and service quality of public buses in kuching city, sarawak
granting_institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)
granting_department	Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
publishDate	2019
url	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27487/3/Towards%20Sustainable%20Public%20Transportation%20System.pdf
_version_	1783728339896238080

Towards Sustainable Public Transportation System : Accessibility and Service Quality of Public Buses in Kuching City, Sarawak

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