THE HEADWAY PATTERNS AND POTENTIAL PARAMETERS OF BUS TRANSPORTATION IN PENANG. Suria Haron 1 *, Sarina Muhamad Noor 2, Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah

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1 THE HEADWAY PATTERNS AND POTENTIAL PARAMETERS OF BUS TRANSPORTATION IN PENANG Suria Haron 1 *, Sarina Muhamad Noor 2, Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah 3 and Leong Lee Vien 4 ABSTRACT: Bus transportation is one of the various means of public transportation. Its efficiency in following its route is vital to ensure customers are satisfied with the service provided. This study is conducted in Penang among Rapid bus passengers. The objectives are twofold, first it attempts to investigate the headway pattern of bus services and secondly, to identify the potential parameters of urban bus performance. In conducting this study, initial observation was conducted to identify the headway pattern. Then, a set of questionnaires was distributed to bus passengers in order to tap into the satisfaction parameters. The data was compared with Highway capacity manual and was analyzed for construct validity using Factor analysis. The findings suggest that most of the services are rendered according to the schedule with only one route found unattractive. Factor analysis discovered five construct for measuring bus performance. The result is beneficial for relevant authorities in developing effective measure for better bus performance Keywords: Bus transportation, headway, service quality, bus parameters. 1 Student, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Seri Ampangan, Nibong Tebal, Seberang Perai Selatan, Pulau Pinang, MALAYSIA 2 Principle Lecturer, Universiti Teknologi MARA Perlis, Kampus Arau, Arau, Perlis, MALAYSIA 3 Professor, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Seri Ampangan, Nibong Tebal, Seberang Perai Selatan, Pulau Pinang, MALAYSIA 4 Principle Lecturer, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Seri Ampangan, Nibong Tebal, Seberang Perai Selatan, Pulau Pinang, MALAYSIA *Correspondence Author: Suria Haron, Ph.D Candidate, School Of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia. Tel: , Fax: sue_riea@yahoo.com/suria.wd07@student.usm.my 279

2 INTRODUCTION Transportation and its environmental impacts are major component of urban environmental management. Many efforts (Canada, the United Stated, European countries, World Bank and etc) were devoted to develop sets of transportation indicators which can be used to label their performance. Developing comprehensive evaluation system is still much needed especially in Malaysia as few attempted effort has been slow (Lee et.al, 2003). Moreover, through promoting public transportation, it offers a method to reduce the use of private cars in urban and eventually the adverse impacts of transportation. The rationale of this study relies on two main issues. First is on the traffic congestion in the city. This is because the planning and provision of the transportation for urban travel in Penang was targeted for the need of private car users resulting in a fairly serious level of congestion (JICA, 1986 and Rasagam,1999). This situation leads into urban traffic congestion, increasing rates of injury and death from traffic accidents as well as environmental issues. Secondly, the facilities provided through public transportation are poor (Selvanathan, 2007). The woes and complaints from publics and tourists need further investigation. As Penang received thousands of tourists each year, the bus transportation as one of the main public transportation needs some up-grading. The bad condition of bus network system in Penang due to no legible schedules at the main bus interchange, adoption of laissez-faire systems by raising the rates of fare, doing away with the ticketing system and do not follow timetable and planned routes make the public transportation exacerbate problem and make solutions very difficult. Hence, the decision to set up Rapid Penang in mid 2007 is a right step to reduce the state s traffic woes. Accordingly, there is a need to bring about significant improvements on the public transportation in Penang in order to encourage people to use public transport as the main mode of transportation. Hence, the objectives of this study are twofold: i. To determine the headway pattern of bus services in Penang. ii. To determine the potential parameters of urban bus performance indicators that explains passenger satisfaction and related to sustainable transportation. This study is important in order to encourage more people to use the bus services and to obtain insights from actual users of the system about the changes they would like to see to better meet their needs. Moreover, the results would alleviate the present congestion and related problems due to public transportation issues. It is hoped that this study will become the benchmark by public transport operators and planning authorities, for academics and other researchers in order to improve the service quality of the public transportation system in Penang. LITERATURE REVIEW Transportation is one of the most important components of urban infrastructure necessary to ensure the vitality of an urban area. An efficient network of transportation services are required to support the complex activity patterns within cities. Furthermore, there is a strong connection between transportation and city growth. The successive improvements in the transportation system allowed the city to grow farther and farther (Hamed and Olaywah, 2000). 280

3 Moreover, transportation can also promote or hinder development and vice versa (Papacostas and Prevendouros, 2001). Improving public transportation is seen by many as critical (Ison and Wall, 2002). With a rise in demand for transportation come congestion and other related problems such as delays, uncertainty, and stress on both individuals and society (Morris et al., 2005). Hence, the transportation needs of major cities present significant challenges for policy makers especially with the unpredictable shifts in population dynamics (Andaleeb et al., 2007). Reliability Performance Among the critical issue in public transportation is its reliability performance. Reliability performance of bus operation refers to consistency of performance, frequency and dependability (Robert-James, C. (2002). Many of the larger cities have their bus operated on a frequency or headway rather than time table basis (Randall, et al, 2007). According to United State Highway Capacity Manual 2000 (HCM, 2000), there are several measurers of reliability used by transit systems. The most common are on-time performance, headway adherence (the consistency or evenness of the interval between transit vehicles), missed trips and distance travel between the mechanical breakdowns. On-time performance is the most widely used measure in the transit industry. It measures the percentage of trips departing from all schedule time points (Nakanishi, 1997). Meanwhile, headway adherence refers to the degree of actual headway as compared to scheduled headway. The headway schedule adheres if it met at least 50% of the actual headway (Hammerle, Haynes & Mc Nell, 2006). Headway adherence is important for frequent service, since bunched vehicles indicate inefficiency in operation. The bunched buses require the buses to be in waiting line longer than expected. This will also lead to overcrowding as all the buses arrive simultaneously at a specific station,(hcm, 2000). In addition, measuring the reliability of transit service is also important because both the transit customer and the transit provider value reliable service (Nakanishi, 1997). With an accurate picture of service performance, it gives customers valuable information to become active participants in the transit policy and decision making process (Nakanishi, 1997). Service Quality Measuring service quality is important to ensure customers patronizing the business for repeat purchases. The same principle applies to transportation businesses. Customers who are satisfied with the bus performance will return and use the services. Studies on service quality can be traced back to Parasuraman, Zeithmal and Bery (1985) who translate the abstract nature of service delivery into an instrument capable of measuring the perception and performance of service quality. The said instrument, SERVQUAL, has gone through various developments. Most of scholars still agree that the dimensions used in Parasuraman s instrument are still much relevant in measuring service quality. There are five dimensions namely tangibility, reliability, receptivity, assurance and empathy. These dimensions were adapted to transportation study and are labeled differently following Andaleeb et al. (2007), Nicholas and Poimboeuf (2003), Stradling et al. (2007) and (Wang et al., 2006). These are labeled as safety and security for assurance, facility for tangibility, and economic for receptivity. The dimension of reliability and accessibility remains as it is. 281

4 METHODOLOGY The study was conducted in Penang focusing on the Rapid Penang buses and commuters. This service provider was used as it provides a higher quality bus that minimize uncomfortable gap for boarding passengers. The bus was air conditioned with age not greater than 5 years, was operated by a uniformed staff and have low-floored vehicles. This study used seven routes patronized by Rapid Penang buses in Seberang Prai, Penang. The routes selected which were U601, U602, U701, U702, T703, U801 and U802. The data was collected manually using two stages. First, following Nakanishi (1997), several point check observation was conducted at transit stop to determine the reliability performance. Few research assistants were positioned at various bus stops at the respective routes. These researchers kept a record on the bus arrival time and the subsequent service. The headway time for the seven routes was measured in order to determine the headway pattern for each route. The data was collected from 7.00 a.m. until 9.00 a.m. for peak hour and 9.00 a.m. until 2.00 p.m. for off peak hour. The schedule used was based on Nakanishi (1999), whereby peak hour is between 7.00 to 8.59 a.m. an midday, 9.00 to 4.00 p.m. is considered as off peak hour. In addition, most of the respondents are working people and the student who were in the sample comprised of university students. The survey was conducted on the weekday for three weeks. The data was then compared to HCM 2000 for both peak and off peak hours. A comparison with HCM 2000 was used as it provides a method that guides the users in the analysis of automobiles and transit in a corridor analysis (Dowling, McLeod, Guttenplan and Zegeer, 2007). On top of that, Malaysian Public Work Department only used HCM 2000 to measure speed-flow relationship as HCM 2000 application is under research area, this study will use LOS to assess to highway pattern. Moreover, previous research that used LOS was conducted in rail transit (Cao, Yuan, Zhang and Zhao, 2009), airport terminals (Correia, Wirasinghe, Barros, 2008) and among pedestrian (Tan, Wang, Lu, 2007). According to HCM 2000, there are five categories of level of service (LOS) that correspond with each bus frequency or headway and number of vehicles per hour. Table 1 show that LOS A is the most satisfactory as the bus frequency is less than 10 min. Hence, bus schedules are not required. However, for LOS E and F, the bus headway is between half an hour to an hour and more than one hour respectively. Service is available yet customers might not keen in waiting if they have other options. Competition could beat bus operators out if they fall in these categories. Table 1: Service Frequency of LOS for Urban Scheduled Transit (HCM 2000) LOS Headway (min) Veh/h Comments A <10 >6 Passengers don t need schedules B > Frequent service; passengers consult schedules C > Maximum desirable time to wait if bus/train missed D > Service unattractive to choice riders E > Service available during hour F >60 <1 Service unattractive to all riders 282

5 During the second stage of data collection, another group of research assistants were employed to distribute the questionnaires for the bus passengers who were waiting for the Rapid Penang buses at Rapid Penang bus terminals and bus stops. The purpose is to get the customers opinions and experiences while using Rapid Penang as their feedback is very important to improve the bus services. There were five dimensions identified most prevalent by the literatures. The dimensions covered were safety & security, environment, economic, accessibility and reliability. These 45 self-completed questions were divided into 2 sections namely Section A for demographic information and Section B for user perception on level of quality service offered by the operator. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Factor analysis was employed during the second stage in order to group together those variables which are highly correlated with each other. Then the data was interpreted based on each dimension according to the grouped variables (Fielding et al., 1985). RESULT ANALYSIS The findings are divided into two main subsections. First is on the reliability performance and secondly, on the service reliability. Headway pattern Under reliability performance, a graph was plotted to determine the headway pattern of bus operations for each of the routes. Figure 1.0 shows the result. The result was interpreted based on the graph and compared to HCM (2000) table. The figure 1.0 is based on the bus schedule. The bus arrivals during peak and off peak hour are shown by the bar chart. Then a comparison was made with LOS based on the schedule and actual and the bus arrivals. Figure 1.0 Headway pattern during peak-hour and off-peak hour 283

6 Headway pattern during peak hour The economic factor also contributes significantly to reduce car dependency by promoting buses to workplace. Hence, it is a great concern to minimize congestion and consequently the accident risks. This is relevant to factor 3 on safety and security. Another attribute, safety while travelling by Rapid Penang bus, is another attractive attribute to attract people to use public transport. Figure 1.0 indicates that five routes which are U602, U701, U702, T703 and U801 share the same LOS E during the peak hour condition. The result indicates that the service was available during the hour with headway between minutes. Hence, reduction in the number of buses operated during peak hour could lead to headway delay. LOS for U601 and U802 is F indicating that the service is unattractive to all riders (Table 2) Table 2: Service frequency LOS for Rapid Penang bus services according to HCM 2000 Route LOS Comments U601 F Service unattractive to all riders U602 E Service available during hour U701 E Service available during hour U702 E Service available during hour T703 E Service available during hour U801 E Service available during hour U802 F Service unattractive to all riders Headway pattern during off-peak hour During off-peak hour, routes U601, U602 and U802 performed poorly as compared to the other routes (Table 3). It was clear that reducing the number of bus operating during off-peak hour significantly increased the headway delay and it will not improve the situation. Table 3: Service frequency LOS for Rapid Penang bus services according to HCM 2000 Route LOS Comments U601 F Service unattractive to all riders U602 F Service unattractive to all riders U701 E Service available during hour U702 E Service available during hour T703 E Service available during hour U801 E Service available during hour U802 F Service unattractive to all riders 284

7 (MUTRF C2010), 21 December 2010, Universiti Tenaga Nasional. ISBN Overall, LOS for route T703 performed better as compared to other routes. Customers are willing to wait if the bus is missed. However, customers who use route U802 are those who have no other options but to wait for the bus to come. Scoring LOS E indicates poor performance for bus patronizing routes U602, U701, U702, T703 and U801; though bus is still available during the hour but the waiting time is within 45 to 50 minutes. According to Nakanishi (1997), the actual headways must be within ±5 min to 30 minutes so that, the customers are served at the scheduled time. The results from observation indicate that headway delays caused road congestion during peak hour. Further observation revealed that headway delay during off-peak hour was strongly related to reduction in bus frequency. Hence, the bus operator should be targeting operations control efforts on bus schedule problem. Service reliability of bus operators During the second stage of data collection, the Rapid Penang passenger s profiles were tabulated. This was done in accordance to suggestion by Stradling et al., (2007) who mention that transport patterns and choices vary with person characteristics such as age, gender and disability, and with journey purposes. The information under Table 4 reveals that majority of the passengers are young at age (56%), female (56%), single (69%) and earning a monthly income of less than RM % of the respondents is working at private firms and 44.4% is students. The data indicates that the majority who patronize the bus services do not have many options for their travelling purposes due to their personal constraints. Majority of those who use the buses are workers (32%) and students (30%). As 50% of the respondents do not own any car with low income, the relationships between income, car ownership and the demand for public transport are as expected. Income is expected to increase the number of trips and length. According to Paulley, et.al (2006) rising cost to own a car, driving license ownership and income growth are the key factors that have shaped personal travel patterns in the last 20 years. Table 4: Demographics of Rapid Penang passengers Demographic Item Frequency Percent Age below above Gender male female Marital status single married divorced

8 Occupation Monthly income Car Ownership Purpose of travel government agencies private agencies pensioner student below RM500 RM500-RM1500 RM1501-RM2000 above RM2000 Car/mpv Van/lorry Motorcycle None To work place To school/college/university To market Others Factor analysis was done on the items in the questionnaires. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett s test of sphericity of sampling indicate the appropriateness of the Service Quality Survey (SQS) data for factor analysis. The KMO values obtained signifies the sampling adequacy of this SQS study (above 0.6) while the value of Bartlett s test shows that all the factors are significant (p<0.05). SQS reliability is satisfactory as Cronbach s alpha coefficient is between (Field, 2002). Table 5 shows the result of factor analysis. Table 5: Result of factor analysis for all items. Factor Attributes Factor loadings Factor 1 Environment The bus station is free from noise pollution. The bus station is free from air pollution. Do you feel comfortable with the air conditioning on the bus? The seats on the bus are always full. The buses are clean. There are enough parking spaces at the bus station. There are sufficient seats at the bus stop & bus station Factor 2 Economic The use of private vehicles may reduce by using the bus. Road accident rates may be reduced when more people use the bus. Financial burden can be reduced when the bus is used. (petrol & parking) Traffic congestion may be reduced when more people use the bus

9 (MUTRF C2010), 21 December 2010, Universiti Tenaga Nasional. ISBN Factor 3 Safety Security and Do you feel safe while waiting for the bus? Bus drivers are very helpful. Do you feel safe while traveling on the bus at night? Bus drivers are polite to passengers. Do you feel safe while crossing the road to the bus stop? Bus drivers drive carefully Factor 4 Accessibility The bus service is convenient to the disable. It is easy to reach the bus stop and bus station. It is easy to find information on bus route and schedule. The bus service is convenient to everybody. The schedule of the bus is convenient Table 5 shows that all items load in the dimensions of environment, economic, safety and security and accessibility. From 34 items, only 22 have the acceptable loadings. The factor loadings is between As these items represent the construct of service quality, they are useful in future evaluation on the service provided by the operator. A high degree of construct validity exhibits the Rapid Penang s passengers significantly. The environmental factor at the bus station is considered strongest; the noise and air pollution was low at the time this survey was done. Furthermore, passengers are satisfied over the new bus and the bus design that is equipped with ultra-low flooring and bus cleanliness. The economic factor also contributes significantly to reduce car dependency by promoting buses to workplace. Hence, it is a great concern to minimize congestion and consequently the accident risks. This is relevant to factor 3 on safety and security. Another attribute, safety while travelling by Rapid Penang bus, is another attractive attribute to attract people to use public transport. CONCLUSION The headway reliability is to maintain the scheduled headways. The intention is to avoid passengers frustration and discomfort while waiting for the services by minimizing the average passenger waiting time. The delay in bus arrivals leads into bunching of buses hence, service cannot be performed towards the users during scheduled hours. Eventually, this will result in peaks in passenger demand for subsequent bus. Such peak in passenger demand may result in buses getting full to its capacity and having to bypass subsequent stops due to inadequate capacity. The result shows that in peak hour, unreliability increases with increasing congestion and passenger demand. As suggested by Liu and Sinha (2007), the passenger demand has more serious impact on headway variability and passenger wait time than on total journey time reliability. Moreover, according to Wang and Barnum (2006), the importance of reliable bus service to customers is well known, with arriving when planned being the most important desire of transit riders. Not surprisingly, therefore, a reliable service delivery indicator is one of the five sets of bus performance standards that are monitored by most transit systems. Public transit agencies have 287

10 developed multiple indicators to measure bus service reliability, with indicators of on-time performance and headway adherence being almost universal, and a third common measure being running time adherence. The findings reveal several important attributes. Some of the identified attributes are not directly under the control of the bus operator. Hence, it offers the challenge to others including local government (Henser, 2003) in an effort to up-grade the situation. The present study is parallel with Friman (2004) as it supports an emphasis on delivering high-quality services to people who use public transport. Indeed, the comprehensive study should be continued to investigate the present situation of bus operation by pursuing more potential attribute, efficient policies and effective measure of urban bus public transport performance. It is suggested that managers and decision makers include provisions from the factors above in their approach to improve service quality toward sustainability. REFERENCES Andaleeb, S.S., Haq, M. and Ahmaed, R. I. (2007), Reforming Innercity Bus Transportation in Developing Country, Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp Cao, S., Yuan, Z., Zhang, C., Zhao L., (2009). LOS Classification for Urban Rail Transit Passages Based on Passenger Perceptions, Journal of Transportation Systems Engineering and Information Technology, Science Direct, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp Correia, A. R., Wirasinghe, S. C., Barros, A. G. (2008). A Global Index for Level of Service Evaluation at Airport Passenger Terminals, Transportation Research Part E, Vol. 44, No. 4, pp Dowling, R. G., McLeod, D., Guttenplan, M., Zegeer, J. D. (2007), Multimodal Corridor Levelof-Service Analysis, Transportation Research Record 1802, Journal of Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington D.C., pp Field, A. (2000). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Windows, Sage Publication Ltd, 6 Bonhill Street, London. Fielding, G., Babitsky, T. & Brenner, M. (1985), Performance Evaluation for Bus Transit, Transportation Research Part A: General, 19, pp Friman, M. (2004), Implementing Quality Improvements in Public Transport, Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 7. No. 4. Hamed, M.M., Olaywah, H.H. (2000), Travel Related Decisions by Bus, Servis Taxi, and Private Car Commuters in The City of Amman, Jordan. Cities, Volume 17, Issue 1, pp

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