Public expectation on the implementation of bus rapid transit at Iskandar Malaysia, Johor

Abstract

Iskandar Malaysia is situated in Johor has encountered a lightening urban expansion after its formation in 2006 which also known as Southern Development Corridor. Iskandar region is undergoing critical urban sprawl and high vehicle dependency due to urbanization. Public transportation is one important solution for this problem. Public transport operators and authorities are forced to place emphasis on the monitoring and improvements of the services provided in an attempt to address the increasing rate of car ownership and climate change. This study focuses on commuters’ satisfaction using public bus services and expectation towards upcoming Bus Rapid Transit service in Iskandar Malaysia (IMBRT). Furthermore, this research also studied the implementation challenges of IMBRT as preliminary studies and provide recommendation for further enhancement of the BRT services prior implementation. Using self-rate questionnaire to investigate 263 respondents’ satisfaction and expectation of commuters. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyzed data in a descriptive, cross-tabulation and factor analysis. One main finding, reported that respondents are mostly not satisfied with most of the quality attributes of public buses. This indicates that the quality of Iskandar Malaysia public bus transport service, especially in Johor Bahru is below the commuters’ expectation. Frequency analysis suggests that from 22 independent variables, commuters only satisfy with fare collection and fare payment system and feeling neutral for air-conditioning services and not satisfied with other service attributes. Frequency analysis also done to study the commuters’ expectation towards future BRT services in Iskandar Malaysia. The factor analysis is conducted to reduce numbers of factor that correlated to customer satisfaction to simplify the decision maker to make an improvement, instead looking on specific items. From twenty-one single service quality attributes that were observed to investigate customer satisfaction in public bus transport, the factor analysis suggests simplifying them into nine factors. CrossTabulation analysis was also carried separately from the Johor Bahru city to identify the public bus usage with three independent factors which are: Gender, Employment and Residential area. From the cross-tabulation of gender (Pearson Chi2 = 4.832; df=1; p=0.028< 0.05) and residential area (Pearson Chi2= 7.94; df= 2; p= 0.019 < 0.05) with public bus usage are showing the relationship between variable is significant using Pearson Chi2 results and relationship with employment status (Pearson Chi2 = 2.246; df= 6; p=0.896>0.05) and public bus usage has shown no significant between these two variables. In addition, under preliminary studies, IMBRT implementation challenges were also being discussed by conducting interview the IRDA officer and found the major possible challenges to be addressed. To summarize, overall aim of this research is to make public transportation mainly Bus Rapid Transit in Iskandar Malaysia (IMBRT) to be implemented in a way more attractive, satisfied, and marketable mode of transport by addressing all those expectations from users and highlighting the implementing challenges in order to provide a highly efficient transport service in Iskandar Malaysia by addressing those challenges.