Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Transportation in Developing Economies (2019) 5:1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40890-018-0069-x ORIGINAL ARTICLE A Review of Service Assessment Attributes and Improvement Strategies for Public Transport Hemant Kumar Suman 1  · Nomesh B. Bolia 1 Received: 18 January 2018 / Accepted: 24 October 2018 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 Abstract Trafc externalities are growing continuously in cities due to increasing dependence of people on private motor vehicles (PMVs) for regular commute. While PMVs have some advantages such as privacy, fexibility, faster commute, comfort, and convenience, their use alone at the current growth rate is not sustainable. A well-planned and efcient public transport (PT) system will have the potential to efciently and sustainably overcome these issues. This may not currently be the case in many cities, but can be, after appropriate user-centric improvements. This paper aims to review the existing literature to get a better understanding of: (1) service assessment attributes that can inhibit the use of PT, and (2) the possible improve- ment strategies that can efectively address the concerns related to each attribute. We developed cause and efect (Ishikawa) diagrams to connect service assessment attributes to corresponding interventions and improvement strategies. Keywords Public transport · Service assessment attributes · Improvement strategies · Ishikawa diagram · PMVs use Introduction Trafc externalities such as congestion and parking issues are growing continuously in metropolitan cities. High dependence on private motor vehicles (PMVs) is the major reason for these trafc externalities [1–6]. In addition to these trafc externalities, high dependence on PMVs causes global climate change and environmental problems. About 23% of energy-related CO 2 is emitted from the transport sec- tor alone. Out of the total vehicle kilometers, three-fourth is traveled by cars. Limiting the use of cars can control reduc- tion in CO 2 emissions on roads [7]. Various studies across the globe reveal that reducing the society’s dependence on PMVs is necessary to control the increasing level of trafc externalities as well as increasing environmental problems [1–10]. As a result, in many cities, the government and transport authorities are trying to shift people from PMVs to pub- lic transport (PT). PT also has additional advantages over PMVs: it gets rid of driving stress, driving hassles and dif- fculty of parking, provides an opportunity to read newspa- pers and talk to people on board, reduces pollution [3, 11, 12], and more. However, PT is unable to compete with cars because the level of services provided by PT is often unable to match the expectations of commuters [13–15]. PMVs do have some advantages over PT, such as privacy, comfort, convenience, fexibility, and faster commute, but their use alone at the current growth rate is not sustainable. The need for enhancing PT mode share cannot be overemphasized, given their cost and sustainability advantages. In the light of all above, PT is considered as a sustainable alternative to PMVs [9, 14, 16, 17]. Further, with the increasing urban population across the world, including in India, an increase in attractiveness of PT is essential to meet high mobility needs sustainably [14, 16, 18, 19]. Further, Deng and Nelson [20], Kottenhof and Freij [21], Goldman and Gorham [22], Nikitas and Karlsson [23] and Hensher et al. [24] point out that buses have the potential to provide similar or even better services to commuters as com- pared to other modes of PT, at a much lower cost. They also highlight that a good PT system can efectively address traf- fc externalities. In Ahmedabad, Bogota, Columbia, Curitiba and Seoul, bus rapid transport systems are known to have made buses better and provided excellent services to com- muters [14, 24–28]. * Hemant Kumar Suman hemantsmn@gmail.com Nomesh B. Bolia nomesh@mech.iitd.ac.in 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India