Proceedings of the 4 th International Conference on Civil Engineering for Sustainable Development (ICCESD 2018), 9~11 February 2018, KUET, Khulna, Bangladesh (ISBN-978-984-34-3502-6) ICCESD-2018-5169-1 ASSESSING BUS SERVICE QUALITY BASED ON PUBLIC PERCEPTION: A CASE STUDY IN CHITTAGONG CITY Md. Ariful Islam 1 , Md. Mehrab Hasan 2 , Prasanjit Das 3 and Farzana Rahman 4 1 Graduate Research Assistant, University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh, e-mail: arifulce33@gmail.com 2 Graduate Research Assistant, University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh, e-mail: mehrabhasance33@gmail.com 3 Graduate Research Assistant, University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh, e-mail: prasanjitdas12@gmail.com 4 Professor, University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh, e-mail: farzana-ce@uap-bd.edu ABSTRACT This paper proposes a methodology for evaluating the quality of service perceived by users of a bus transit service. Even though bus service plays crucial role for transportation of significant number of people in emerging cities, their services are frequently insufficient to meet demand. A quality service is necessary to retain the users and to attract new user for using public transport more, rather than the individual transport to reduce traffic congestion. The main aim of this paper is to assess the service quality (SQ) of bus in Chittagong city based on public perception. Achieving the research objective, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 12 major locations of Chittagong City. 715 regular city bus users of different profession participated in the survey in June, 2017. The result shows that about half of the users in Chittagong city rated overall bus service quality as poor. The respondents evaluated the bus service quality attributes for example convenience, frequency, punctuality, fitness, reliability, waiting time, seat conditions, noise level, personal safety, cleanliness and travel time during office days as poor while movement flexibility inside the bus, courtesy of helpers/conductors, behavior of driver, level of personal safety inside the bus were ranked very poor. However the respondents perceive that speed of bus, availability of information of bus, transport cost, lighting facility and travel time during holidays are satisfactory. The findings of this study offer significant comprehensions for enhancing the bus service presently being offered and the aspects on which the greater attention may be provided. Keywords: Chittagong city, Bus Service Quality, Users’ Perception 1. INTRODUCTION Bus service performs a significant function for movement of considerable number of people in developing cities where the mobility needs are increasing due to rapid urbanization. Even though bus service plays crucial role for transportation of significant number of people in emerging cities, their services are frequently insufficient to meet demand. Usually the services provided by the buses are insufficient (Ali, 2010). Users’ are accommodated to meet up their mobility needs by public buses with associated challenges in delay and discomposure (Davidson and Knowles, 2006) leading to dissatisfaction (Aidoo et al, 2013). Chittagong is the second largest metropolis and Chief port of Bangladesh, with density of 47,500 people per square mile (Demographia, 2017). Although other modes of transportation like railway and waterway exist in this metro city, they are not suitable for the internal transportations. Hence, the roadway is the most operational transportation system in Chittagong city like other overcrowded cities in the world. The majority of trips in Chittagong are served by public transport since a significant numbers of people can’t afford personal vehicle. As the fare of non-motorized transport (NMT) or other para-transits are more expensive than the bus fares (Rahman, 2009), most of the people are heavily dependent on public transport for their travel (Hossain 2006). However, non-motorized transport (NMT) or