ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

Perceived Barriers and Enablers to Using Transit: Understanding heterogeneity of perceptions across different groups of the population

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 03 | MOBILITY

Speaker

Prof. Ehab Diab (University of Saskatchewan)

Description

Improving public transit to attract new riders and retain existing ones has been seen as a major priority for many cities worldwide. This is to foster their abilities to move towards sustainable development by meeting their CO2 emissions reduction goals, while achieving a wide array of social, equity, and economic objectives. Cities strive to understand how users perceive different challenges, or barriers, to using these systems and their views of the needed interventions or solutions to improve such systems, or enablers. Several studies have indicated that perceived barriers could influence people’s activity participation and well-being (Prayitno and Moos, 2022). Additionally, perceived aspects such as safety, comfort, and social interaction can play a significant role in passengers' travel choices (Trepáčová et al., 2021). These perceived barriers could also vary across different groups of users (Allen and Farber, 2018). While previous research has focused on understanding perceived barriers or enablers to using transit for specific groups (e.g., females and students), little has been done to investigate perceived barriers among different groups that can be engaged in the planning process. To address this gap, this research aims to examine the perceived barriers and enablers while understanding differences between different population groups. Two primary groups were identified: those with individual-related barriers and those who, despite not perceiving any personal barriers, perceive societal barriers. Furthermore, these two groups were broken down by gender, use of transit, and university status.

To achieve the aforementioned goals, the study uses data collected from a large online survey conducted in 2024, called the USask Mobility survey (1,600 respondents), to understand travel behaviors and perceptions of the University of Saskatchewan’s population. The University of Saskatchewan is a major educational, community service, and employment center in the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. In recent years, the commuting patterns of university students have received increased attention due to their large numbers and their potential for behavior transformation, as students tend to adopt new travel habits during this period of their lives (Cadima et al., 2020). A mixed methodology approach was utilized to analyze open-ended and Likert scale questions of perceived barriers and enablers collected from the survey. The initial results show significant disparities in barrier perceptions across different demographic groups, including gender, with females more likely to perceive individual-related barriers and males more likely to report society-related barriers. Nevertheless, regardless of the group, participants consistently identified transit route and system planning issues as the most common perceived barriers and enablers. This research underscores the importance of tailored transportation solutions to enhance transit use and users’ retention. By understanding a wider array of perceived barriers and enablers, cities and transit agencies will be able to better direct their resources to improve different groups of users’ experience while adjusting service aspects to address different groups of users’ concerns, thus building a more inclusive system. In other words, the study offers cities important insights that can be used to foster the development of more equitable transit systems for diverse groups of users.

References

ALLEN, J. & FARBER, S. 2018. How time-use and transportation barriers limit on-campus participation of university students. Travel Behaviour and Society, 13, 174-182.

CADIMA, C., SILVA, C. & PINHO, P. 2020. Changing student mobility behaviour under financial crisis: Lessons from a case study in the Oporto University. Journal of Transport Geography, 87, 102800.

PRAYITNO, K. & MOOS, M. 2022. Freeing the “captive rider”: Young adults’ public transit experiences in Toronto high-rise suburbs. Canadian Planning and Policy / Aménagement et politique au Canada, 2022, 20-48.

TREPÁČOVÁ, M., KUREČKOVÁ, V., ZÁMEČNÍK, P. & REZÁC, P. 2021. Advantages and disadvantages of rail transportation as perceived by passengers: A qualitative and quantitative study in the Czech Republic. Transactions on Transport Sciences, 11, 52-62.