Abstract:
Urban public transport is crucial for mobility and economic development especially in rapid growing Cities like Kigali, Rwanda, where the effort of modernizing the public transport by bus have been made. However, to align this development with the commuter satisfaction has remained not understood as it would be. This thesis assesses the commuter perceptions of Kigali bus service quality along Kigali’s main corridors by employing a multi-disciplinary approach that combines participatory data collection with statistical analysis.
The data of this study were collected through structured questionnaires from 387 commuters across Kigali City, these questionnaires have the socio-demographic, travel pattern information and their satisfaction levels on bus service quality on different factors that influence the bus service quality. after collecting those data, the Two stepcluster analysis was employed to have distinct clusters based on their travel behavior factors, a methodological approach that allows for more targeted service interventions. The two clusters were identified: Cluster one and Cluster two, the commuters of cluster one are called The Long Haul frequent and those of the cluster two are time efficient occasional commuters due to their difference in critical factors such as average waiting and average traveling time, and also their frequency of commuting with bus on a weekly basis.
After the identification of two distinct group, an Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) was employed to reveal the specific bus service quality for each commuter’s cluster in Kigali City; while both groups prioritize operational efficiency, their satisfaction levels diverge. After analysis, it was found that for The Long-Haul frequent commuters, shelter quality including seating at bus stop, access to information, luggage accommodation and air cooling are most needed as they show the high importance, but their satisfaction is poor, there is a need of improvement for those bus service quality attributes. Addressing these deficiencies should be a priority as they are highly valued by this group of commuters but are currently underperforming. In contrast, the cluster two commuters valued more the bus service reliability, bus frequency, bus stop infrastructure, access to information, bus accessibility and onboard experience, especially bus entering and access to bus of people with disability in wheel chair,
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luggage assistance and accommodation, air cooling, and route alignment with commuter destination, but their satisfaction is poor, thus these should be improved to meet the satisfaction level of Kigali City commuters.
This research bridges a methodological gap by combining a two-cluster analysis with Importance-Performance Analysis to provide a nuanced, commuter centered framework. The findings offer an evidence-based model for Kigali City and other African cities to develop more inclusive, data driven, and user oriented public transport systems.
