University Students’ Perception on Public Transit in Dhaka City
With the increasing population and intensive land use,
huge traffic demand is generating worldwide both in developing and
developed countries. As a developing country, Bangladesh is also
facing the same problem in recent years by producing huge numbers
of daily trips. As a matter of fact, extensive traffic demand is
increasing day by day. Also, transport system in Dhaka is
heterogeneous, reflecting the heterogeneity in the socio-economic
and land use patterns. Trips produced here are for different purposes
such as work, business, educational etc. Due to the significant
concentration of educational institutions a large share of the trips are
generated by educational purpose. And one of the major percentages
of educational trips is produced by university going students and
most of them are travelled by car, bus, train, taxi, rickshaw etc. The
aim of the study was to find out the university students’ perception on
public transit ridership. A survey was conducted among 330 students
from eight different universities. It was found out that 26% of the
trips produced by university going students are travelled by public
bus service and only 5% are by train. Percentage of car share is 16%
and 12% of the trips are travelled by private taxi. It has been
observed from the study, students those who prefer bus instead of
other options, 42 percent of their family resides outside Dhaka. And
those who prefer walking, of them, over 40 percent students’ family
reside outside of Dhaka and of them over 85 percent students have a
tendency to live in a mess. On the contrary, students travelling by car
represents, most of their family reside in Dhaka. The study also
revealed that the most important reason that restricts students not to
use public transit is poor service. Negative attitudes such as
discomfort, uneasiness in using public transit also reduces the usage
of public transit. The poor waiting area is another major cause of not
using public transit. Insufficient security also plays a significant role
in not using public transit. On the contrary, the fare is not a problem
for students those who use public transit as a mode of transportation.
Students also think stations are not far away from their home or
institution and they do not need to wait long for the buses or trains. It
was also found accessibility to public transit is moderate.
[1] Bangladesh bureau of statistics. 2011. Bangladesh Population &
Housing Census.
[2] Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, 2009. Number of registered
vehicle, www.brta.gov.bd, accessed on 17 December, 2009.
[3] STP (2005), The Strategic Transport Plan for Dhaka, The Louis Berger
Group Inc. and Bangladesh Consultants Ltd., Dhaka.
[4] Bachok, S., Osman, M. M., Ponrahono, Z., “Passenger’s Aspiration
towards Sustainable Public Transportation System: Kerian District,
Perak, Malaysia”, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 153,
pp.553 – 565, 2014.
[5] Sanchez, T. W., “The Connection between Public Transit and
Employment: The Cases of Portland and Atlanta”, Journal of the
American Planning Association, 65(3), 1999.
[6] Gong, H., Jin, W., “Analysis of Urban Public Transit Pricing
Adjustment Program Evaluation Based on Trilateral Game” Procedia -
Social and Behavioral Sciences, 138, pp. 332-339, July 2014.
[7] Nasrudin, N., Rostam, K., Noor, H. M., “Barriers and Motivations for
Sustainable Travel Behaviour: Shah Alam residents’ Perspectives”,
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 153, pp. 510-519, October
2014.
[8] Fu, X., Juan, Z., “Transit commuting market investigation using the
latent segmentation Approach”, Travel Behaviour and Society, 2, pp.
102–108, 2015.
[9] Pronello, C., Camusso, C., “Travellers’ profiles definition using
statistical multivariate analysis of attitudinal variables”, Journal of
Transportation Geography, 19 (6), pp. 1294–1308, 2011.
[1] Bangladesh bureau of statistics. 2011. Bangladesh Population &
Housing Census.
[2] Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, 2009. Number of registered
vehicle, www.brta.gov.bd, accessed on 17 December, 2009.
[3] STP (2005), The Strategic Transport Plan for Dhaka, The Louis Berger
Group Inc. and Bangladesh Consultants Ltd., Dhaka.
[4] Bachok, S., Osman, M. M., Ponrahono, Z., “Passenger’s Aspiration
towards Sustainable Public Transportation System: Kerian District,
Perak, Malaysia”, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 153,
pp.553 – 565, 2014.
[5] Sanchez, T. W., “The Connection between Public Transit and
Employment: The Cases of Portland and Atlanta”, Journal of the
American Planning Association, 65(3), 1999.
[6] Gong, H., Jin, W., “Analysis of Urban Public Transit Pricing
Adjustment Program Evaluation Based on Trilateral Game” Procedia -
Social and Behavioral Sciences, 138, pp. 332-339, July 2014.
[7] Nasrudin, N., Rostam, K., Noor, H. M., “Barriers and Motivations for
Sustainable Travel Behaviour: Shah Alam residents’ Perspectives”,
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 153, pp. 510-519, October
2014.
[8] Fu, X., Juan, Z., “Transit commuting market investigation using the
latent segmentation Approach”, Travel Behaviour and Society, 2, pp.
102–108, 2015.
[9] Pronello, C., Camusso, C., “Travellers’ profiles definition using
statistical multivariate analysis of attitudinal variables”, Journal of
Transportation Geography, 19 (6), pp. 1294–1308, 2011.
@article{"International Journal of Business, Human and Social Sciences:71171", author = "Md. Mosabbir Pasha and Ijaj Mahmud Chowdhury and M. A. Afrahim Bhuiyan", title = "University Students’ Perception on Public Transit in Dhaka City", abstract = "With the increasing population and intensive land use,
huge traffic demand is generating worldwide both in developing and
developed countries. As a developing country, Bangladesh is also
facing the same problem in recent years by producing huge numbers
of daily trips. As a matter of fact, extensive traffic demand is
increasing day by day. Also, transport system in Dhaka is
heterogeneous, reflecting the heterogeneity in the socio-economic
and land use patterns. Trips produced here are for different purposes
such as work, business, educational etc. Due to the significant
concentration of educational institutions a large share of the trips are
generated by educational purpose. And one of the major percentages
of educational trips is produced by university going students and
most of them are travelled by car, bus, train, taxi, rickshaw etc. The
aim of the study was to find out the university students’ perception on
public transit ridership. A survey was conducted among 330 students
from eight different universities. It was found out that 26% of the
trips produced by university going students are travelled by public
bus service and only 5% are by train. Percentage of car share is 16%
and 12% of the trips are travelled by private taxi. It has been
observed from the study, students those who prefer bus instead of
other options, 42 percent of their family resides outside Dhaka. And
those who prefer walking, of them, over 40 percent students’ family
reside outside of Dhaka and of them over 85 percent students have a
tendency to live in a mess. On the contrary, students travelling by car
represents, most of their family reside in Dhaka. The study also
revealed that the most important reason that restricts students not to
use public transit is poor service. Negative attitudes such as
discomfort, uneasiness in using public transit also reduces the usage
of public transit. The poor waiting area is another major cause of not
using public transit. Insufficient security also plays a significant role
in not using public transit. On the contrary, the fare is not a problem
for students those who use public transit as a mode of transportation.
Students also think stations are not far away from their home or
institution and they do not need to wait long for the buses or trains. It
was also found accessibility to public transit is moderate.", keywords = "Traffic demand, fare, poor service, public transit
ridership.", volume = "9", number = "10", pages = "3487-4", }