Investigation of public transport system satisfactionwith logit model in Çorum

The rapid rise in the population of the cities has increased the importance of transportation in the cities. This situation has caused the increase of negative effects such as traffic congestion, noise pollution, air pollution, socio-economic problems, time loss due to transportation of cities. Many studies have been carried out in order to minimize these negativities in the cities. When the studies are examined, the city has reached the conclusion that they should give importance to public transportation systems for sustainable transport. Urban residents transportation needs to use more efficient alternatives such as public transportation instead of private transportation types that reduce the transportation problems that can occur in cities. With increasing technology and increasing population and rising income, the number of private transportation vehicles is increasing day by day. Even in the current situation, especially the large spatial areas required to meet the transportation needs in urban areas are not enough. In addition to these, with the increase of individual vehicles, parking spaces of these vehicles also cause spatial pressure on the cities. Even the effects of private transportation in cities show how important mass transportation is in terms of cities. In many cities around the world, efforts are being made to develop public transport systems and to increase the number of users. Developing technologies are emerging with more efficient public transport systems and service quality in public transport system that is set up much more. Thus, the transportation needs of the residents of the city can be provided more easily with public transport systems. In addition, improvements in existing public transport systems can improve the quality of public transport services and the use of public transport. So, the sustainability of transportation can be increased with public transport systems in the cities. There are many methods used in cities to reduce the use of private transportation and to enable the inhabitants of the city to choose public transportation systems. Some of those; the establishment of new transport systems and integration into the existing system, the improvements to be made in the existing system and the changes made by the public transport decision makers in the direction of the will of the public transport users. One of the changes that will be made in the operation of the public transport system can be done by investigating the factors affecting the satisfaction of the public transport users. In this study, the factors affecting the satisfaction of users of public transportation systems in cities are used in the context of user's personal characteristics and public transportation features. Thus, both the effect of changing the user's personal characteristics to the satisfaction of public transportation and the characteristics of the public transportation system are found to have effects on public transportation satisfaction. The study was benefited from the survey conducted in Çorum Municipality and Yalova University within the scope of the joint service project for Çorum province in 2016. A total of 3,000 surveys were conducted during the day with public transport users. A total of 2594 questionnaires were used in the study. Approximately 6.30% of daily average public transport usage was captured in these surveys. Firstly, determined in literature study describes the factors affecting the transit satisfaction. In addition, the results obtained from previous public transport satisfaction studies are also given to explain how the factors affect public transport satisfaction. It has been observed that the effects of public transport satisfaction on the factors affecting public transport satisfaction are different. The main reasons for this are that each city has its own socio-economic status, family structure, urban dynamics, and so on. The results obtained from the public transportation surveys for Çorum were then explained on the basis of the public transportation satisfaction scale and explained for each element that can be obtained from the surveys. Thus, analysis of the study area was made before the satisfaction models were established. The public transport surveys conducted in Çorum were analyzed and the variables that could affect public transport satisfaction were extracted. Using these variables, models of public transport general satisfaction model, public transport stop satisfaction, public transport cleanliness satisfaction and public transportation expedition satisfaction were created with logit model. In the models, datas are used to evaluate each individual separately. Thus, it is aimed to minimize the problems caused by grouping. Also in estimating logit models with the help of satisfaction of users of public transit public transport was performed by independent variables. Satisfaction levels used in the survey and study are classified from one to five which is very poor, poor, moderate, good and very good satisfaction levels are used. The model is estimated to be very good satisfaction level and the utility function is estimated at four different levels. The variables that affect the satisfaction of the models with the model are estimated at the scale of the variables. Urban public transport users, the potential consequences of changes to the public transport utilizing the statistical model by which variables that influence how the overall satisfaction of the urban public transport system were estimated. With these estimates, the public transport system will be able to predict how public transport users will affect the system's satisfaction when the decision makers make changes in the current situation or in future public transport systems. The general outcome of the general public transport satisfaction model estimation is as follows; users with the male gender are more satisfied than public transport, public transportation users are more satisfied when their age is higher. Also, if users are more easily accessible to the bus stops, satisfaction with public transport has increased. It has also been found that retired public transport users are less satisfied with public transport than other occupational groups, besides users are more satisfied when the current public transport journey is compulsory. However, there is no link has been established between public transport users with private vehicle and general public transport satisfaction. The results of the models for Çorum show how the personal characteristics of public transport users and the public transport characteristics affect the satisfaction of public transport users. Increased satisfaction with public transport services in urban areas on the purpose to increase the tendency to prefer public transportation instead of using private vehicle, the traffic density urban air pollution, is proposed to reduce the drawbacks such as energy waste.