Do users' characteristics really influence the perceived service quality of Multimodal Transportation Hub (MMTH)? An association rules mining approach

Abstract

Exploring approaches for improving the service quality (SQ) of the urban multimodal transportation hub (MMTH) and alluring new passengers for providing seamless and sustainable mobility are the major concerns and objectives for transport planners and operating agencies in the contemporary world. Considering the fact, the present study endeavours to identify the association of users’ socio-demographics and travel characteristics with different service quality levels developed for a MMTH. The data was collected from 515 users of Anand Vihar MMTH, Delhi. K-means clustering categorized SQ in three levels: low, medium, and high. Association Rules Mining approach was used to generate various interesting rules, which also highlighted the disparity among users’ perceptions on the basis of three different SQ levels. Results demonstrated that the ‘passengers travelling 3 to 5 times per week’, ‘those who were having the availability of driving license’, ‘users with more than 15 minutes of transfer time’, and ‘the female users’ were the least satisfied with the SQ of MMTH. Interestingly, ‘the graduates with high-income travelling for work purpose’ and ‘users who were retired from their jobs’ were highly convinced with SQ. The research outcomes will be advantageous to the transport policy makers while implementing the user-based policies in the MMTH for embellishing the public transport infrastructure and to make the urban cities inclusive, resilient, safe and sustainable.