Driving a Car and Using Public Transport Essay

Introduction:

As urban areas around large cities increase in population density, transport road infrastructure becomes less able to cope with daily commuters. This results in heavy peak-hour congestion. Traffic congestion has been shown to decrease workplace productivity and increase emotions such as anger and aggression (Harriet, Poku & Emmanuel, 2013; Emo, Matthews & Funke, 2016). Despite these findings, commuters are reluctant to switch to public transport from private vehicles, due to perceived unsatisfactory levels of convenience and safety (Le, Trinh, 2016). Public transport users are also shown to experience more negative emotions during the day than car users, perhaps due to low expectations of future trips (Morris, Guerra, 2015). Furthermore, feelings of safety can affect how often people use public transport (Delbosc, Currie, 2012). Current public transport users consider reliability, frequency, and speed as important factors when using them (Mouwen, 2015). On the other hand, potential users of public transport consider that while these factors would be desirable to see in the future, overcrowding of the vehicle is the most important (Dell’Olio, Ibeas, Cecin, 2011). Dissatisfaction with crowding can be broken down into not being able to sit, lack of personal space, and poor use of journey time (Haywood, Koning & Monchambert, 2016). With growing urban density around cities and many of those people using cars, overwhelming the roads, people will need to look for alternative transport. This report will be reviewing recent literature on quality perceptions of public transport, the effects of choice of transport mode and negative attributes of car usage and provide recommendations for promoting the use of trains over cars in and around cities.

The Issue:

With the population soaring and car ownership ever-rising, many cities around the world are ill-equipped to deal with the demand from road commuters, leading to heavy congestion around the city and parking a competitive sport. Cars are by far the most likely mode of transport to be involved in an accident (Savage, 2013). Furthermore, the average annual running cost of a car is $8700, whereas the annual cost of public transport (the 365-day fare) is just $1722.50. Finally, in addition to these numerous disadvantages, the effect of traffic congestion is often linked to negative mental states. Some research suggests that those driving in the largest cities during peak hours are generally in a less positive mood than others (Morris & Hirsch, 2016). Other research proposes that driving in dense traffic conditions has a greater effect on road-related stressors than the actual time spent traveling (Higgins, Sweet, & Kanaroglou, 2018). Traffic congestion and related delays in the daily commute are even asserted by some to have a negative impact on workplace productivity (Harriet, Poku, & Emmanuel, 2013).

Despite all this, commuters still prefer to use cars over public transport namely, trains, why? The public attitude to train use is much more negative than toward cars. In fact, when surveyed during random activities, those who chose public transport as a mode of transportation were shown to experience the most negative emotions. In contrast, car users were ranked second highest for positive emotions, after bicyclists (Morris & Guerra, 2015). This is also supported by a study stating people feel generally less well commuting than when at home, with the largest effect seen on public transport (Lancée, Veenhoven & Burger, 2017). A myriad of research is constantly being done on the experience, perceptions, satisfaction, etc. of public transport users. This has consistently shown the in-carriage experience (crowding, comfort, noise, cleanliness, etc.) to be one of the most important factors for users. Another huge factor that comes up time and time again is service quality (frequency, convenient systems, and reliability).

In regards to the in-carriage experience, crowding plays a vital role in customer satisfaction, especially for potential users. It has been revealed the specific cause of discomfort with crowding comes from three key factors: displeasure with standing; a lack of personal space and less productive use of journey time, such as working on a laptop (Haywood, Koning, & Monchambert, 2017). Akin to this, much research refers to comfort as an important factor (Dell’Olio, Ibeas, & Cecin, (2011). Cleanliness, noise, and smell all factor into comfort (Lai & Chen, 2011). Despite trains being the least likely mode of transport to be involved in an accident, some research includes vehicle safety as a significant determinant of passenger behavior (Lai & Chen, 2011; Savage, 2013). Personal safety and fear is arguably more relevant factor, evidenced by the prevalence of studies done on this. For women, lack of punctuality and security are major contributors to fear while traveling (Sham, Samsudin, & Rahman, 2013). Feelings of personal safety have a minor but not insignificant effect on how often people choose to use public transport (Delbosc, & Currie, 2012).

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Additional to in-carriage experience, service quality is a vital factor in public transport use. One study suggests public transport use is five times more common in Germany than in America due to: more frequent and better service; agreeable fare and ticket systems, multimodal integration, and more (Buehler, & Pucher, 2012). Current public transport users value punctuality, frequency, and reliability of the trains as well as waiting and travel time, as the most important service attributes (Dell’Olio, Ibeas, & Cecin, 2011; Mouwen, 2015; Redman, Friman, Gärling, & Hartig, 2013). Interestingly, data shows that different demographics of public transport users (students, elderly, etc.) have similar opinions on the importance of the above factors. Also, frequent users are generally more satisfied with the service than occasional users (Abenoza, Cats, & Susilo, 2017).

Recommendations:

Discouraging car use:

Cities all over the world are introducing congestion charges to discourage driving into the city during peak times. This has shown to be effective in Stockholm, decreasing traffic over time since its introduction 5 years prior (Börjesson, Eliasson, Hugosson & Brundell-Freij, 2012). Singapore's use of such has helped maintain an optimal speed on freeways, suggesting less congestion (Haque, Chin, & Debnath, 2013). The public in Stockholm supported congestion charging over other solutions, such as new roads (Börjesson, Hamilton, Näsman, & Papaix, 2015). Similarly, in the United States, polls show a public preference to introduce new policies to alleviate traffic congestion but reject new taxes to pay for infrastructure improvements (Morris & Hirsch, 2016). Remarkably, the introduction of this charge in Stockholm showed a spillover effect to other pro-environmental behaviors in the following years, for example, using energy-saving lightbulbs (Kaida, N. & Kaida, K. 2015). Despite all this, studies in China have ascertained that this policy alone will not encourage a switch to public transport use unless the system is improved (Yunxia Liu, Hong, & Yong Liu, (2016).

Improving the Train experience:

A significant portion of the public admits they would be willing to switch to public transport if the infrastructure and quality were improved (Le & Trinh, 2016). While measures such as lower-fare promotions can be successful in getting car users to try the train, the service quality must be improved in order to sustain the switch (Redman, Friman, Gärling, & Hartig, 2013). This means that the above-mentioned in-carriage experience and service quality must be improved to attract and keep customers. Research shows that removing fares altogether has a minimal short-term effect on traffic congestion. Targeted measures to meet customer expectations are necessary to retain an increase in public transport use (Fearnley, 2013). It is worth noting that a system already struggling with overcrowding will not cope with increased patronage. More frequent services and extra vehicles will be vital (Mouwen, 2015). While all this will involve a significant cost to Metro Trains, studies show train users would be willing to pay up to three times their current fare to avoid congestion (Prud'homme, Koning, Lenormand, & Fehr, 2012). Introducing Parking towers to support a park-and-ride system will also be beneficial, even when use involves a small fee (Habib, Mahmoud, & Coleman, 2013; Haque, Chin, & Debnath, (2013).

Finally, through extensive advertising, the public should be kept updated with these changes. The positive health effects of switching from car use also need to be reinforced. In Barcelona, if 40% of people were to change to public transport and bike use, significant decreases in the number of heart-related diseases and diabetes would be expected (Rojas-Rueda, De Nazelle, Teixidó, & Nieuwenhuijsen, 2013).

Conclusion:

The perpetual problem of traffic congestion has many negative effects. Commuters are reluctant to switch to public transport due to a variety of issues with the system, including in-carriage congestion and general service quality. Taking measures to reduce these issues and discourage car use by the introduction of congestion charges should contribute a great deal to promoting the use of public transport.