The Importance of Resident\u27s Attitude Towards Service Quality in Travel Choice of Public Transit

Understanding residents’ attitude towards service quality is essential, because residents’ conception of service quality is seen as an important role in travel choice intention. This paper explored the relationships between attitude towards public transit service quality and travel choice intention, and introduced the measuring method of attitude in terms of satisfaction and attention. The hypotheses that attitude reflected by attention and satisfaction had an effect on travel choice intention, while attention also influenced satisfaction, were proposed. Using data obtained from the 2011 public transit stated preference survey in the city of Tongling, factor analysis combined an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis was adopted to select key factors of service indicators. Then a structural equation model was established to test the conceptualized relationship model. The findings show the influence of residents’ attitude towards service quality on travel choice intention is significant, especially residents’ attention to travel time. The implications of the findings in residents’ travel behavior analysis and service quality improvement of public transit in some small-medium cities as Tongling are discussed