[sustran] Re: commuter satisfaction index

[Kisan Mehta]

Dear Colleagues,

We have noticed that the commuter looks for a service that is safe, direct,
affordable, quick between his origin and destination.  To this must be added
pollution free and not unhealthy.

Travel in a suburban train or intercity train that provides to the commuter
journey back and forth for reaching and returning from the  work place, if
crowded, certainly  does not give satisfaction.  So also the bus travel
where other modes like personal car, heavy duty
vehicles obsruct public bus carrying 30 to 50 -qsswngers is also not
sarisfying.

One more development that has come up without public noticing but the
authorities and bus operators pursuing is diversion of public bus to a
longer crowded route during road repairs while personal cars use the old
direct road, construction of flyovers built at public cost for private
vehicles, absence of pavements for pedestrians etc.  Floyvers that come up
on the plea that columns to put up the flyover would occupy only minimum
space say 3-5 sq m on the existing road   The public agency that builds
hires the width on the existing road equivalent to the width of of the
flyover for parking of vehicles significantly cutting fown the existing
carriageway and delay the movement of public buses.

Absence of pavements is a permanent accident hazard.   Citizens including
commuters are not satisfied from this predicament. The World Bank in its
Project Appraisal Document while
sanctioning the loan for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project has observed
that Mumbai has amongst the highest road accident rate and pedestrians form
95% of the victims. Commuters
are first and last pedestrians.

We feel that a comprehensive questionnaire covering all direct and indirect
aspects should prepared and citizens should be made aware of the same.
Meetings and consultations should take place with the citizens to feel the
cittizen responses on all issues that affect the services.

Certainly we should not follow the set approach developed for human
settlements in hte developed countries.   Practically all settlemetns in the
developing countries arte first of all suffering from shortages, over
crowding and high priory for motorisation. Absence for citizen safety and
satisfacftion are lacking in our policy makers and bureaucrats. This
situation needs to be reversed. Best wishes.

Kisan Mehta
Tel: 00 91 22 2414 9688
==========================

---- Original Message -----
From: "Puttanna S. Honaganahalli" <psh at isec.ac.in>
To: "Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport"
<sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>

Subject: commuter satisfaction index


> Customer Satisfaction? What is satisfaction? To presume that the
definition
> of satisfaction is going to be the same for all peoples in the world -
> Americans, Europeans, East Asians, South Asians etc.,  - will lead you to
> erroneous results. This mistake of copying foreign models and applying it
to
> local situations has been repeated time and again. The history of third
> world development is replete with myriad examples of failure of foreign
> models.
>
> You need to find out from among your customers, i.e., your city bus
riders,
> as to what gives them statisfaction, and from there will evolve the
> definition of Customer Satisfaction for Bangalore city. Once you have that
> down, coming up with an index to prioritize which attributes provides
> maximum satisfaction is the next step. You can pose this question, as
well,
> to your public transport riders and they will provide you with the
answers.
> Basically, you need to go out and talk to your city bus commuters and
LISTEN
> CAREFULLY to what they have to say.
>
> Thanks
>
> Puttanna S. Honaganahalli Ph.D.
> Ecological Economics Unit
> Institute for Social and Economics Change (ISEC)
> Nagarabhavi, Bangalore 560 072
> Phone: 91-80-2321-5468 x120
> Fax: 91-80-2321-7008
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jain Alok" <ajain at kcrc.com>
> To: "'Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport'"
> <sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 6:55 AM
> Subject: [sustran] Re: commuter satisfaction index
>
> > Dear Vittal,
> >
> > We measure Customer Satisfaction broadly in four categories:
> >
>  Station/Stop Services and Facilities
>  Train/Bus service and facilities
>  Staff attitude
> Price (value for money)
> >
> > Each of these categories have further sub-attributes depending on
cgaracteristics
of individual system. Also CSI alone does not provide the complete picture
with
respect to customer satisfaction. Satisfaction profile is also important
which tells the service planners where exactly to focus.
> >
> > Alok
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Vittal Kumar A. [mailto:vittalkumar_a at yahoo.com]
> > Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 9:08 PM
> > To: Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport
> > Subject: [sustran] commuter satisfaction index
> >
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > At this juncture, I thought its opt to ask a question
> > on Commuter Satisfaction Index for a public transport.
> >
> > Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC)
> > the local public transport corporation has set up a
> > task force by name 'Commuter Comfort Task Force'
> > (CCTF) aiming to evolve at what strategies and
> > measures to be adopted to enhance commuters safisfaction.
> >
> > I request discussion members, to give your inputs on
> > what forms the Customer satisfaction? is it frequency?
> > is it comfort while travelling? free flow of traffic?
> > pricing? courtesy? Any thoughts?
> >
> > What recommendations to increase the customer/commuter
> > satisfaction index? (CSI)
> >
> > regards,
> > Vittalkumar Dhage