Authors

• Saikat Deb, Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering Programme, Assam Down Town University, Assam
• M.A. Ahmed, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Silchar, Assam

In this study, a comprehensive technique has been used to understand how users perceive the performance of intra-city bus services in Agartala and Guwahati, India, and the effect of this perception on travel mode decisions. To meet the study objectives, perception data has been collected through an attitudinal survey from the two cities. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) have been used to extract the latent factors affecting user perceptions. Among the different latent factors, ‘reliability’ and ‘comfort’ are found to be most important for the respondents in Agartala and Guwahati respectively. It was found that female passengers of both the cities perceive bus services as less safe than the male respondents. Finally, using multinomial logistic (MNL) regression, the impact of perception factors on the passengers’ mode preferences has been analysed. ‘Reliability’ and ‘safety’ of the bus service of Agartala, and ‘on-time performance’, ‘safety’ and ‘user friendliness’ of the bus service of Guwahati are the factors that need to be improved to increase bus ridership in both the cities.