Comparing public transport travel perceptions for public transport and personalized vehicle users in well-connected city – Case study of Kolkata, India

It is important to understand commuters’ attitude towards the well-known benefits of using public transport namely, reduction of congestion and pollution and their attitude towards using public transport for work trips. This would help to understand potential user expectations and whether they are ready to continue using public transport in future provided there is an improvement in connectivity. This work aims to compare how individual’s demographic profile influences their attitude towards using public transport and their perception about using public transport for work trips for regular public transport users and personalized vehicle users.  Theory of Planned Behavior framework was used for systematically studying public transport use perceptions. Face-to-face interview was conducted in Kolkata, India between November 2021 and October 2022 and 345 (233 public transport and 112 personalized vehicle) user responses were obtained and used for study. The findings show that male public transport commuters believe that public transport travel reduces congestion and pollution and their public transport travel will be pleasant, good and time saving in future. However, gender do-not influence commuters’ beliefs for personalized vehicle users. Educated public transport commuters were observed to believe that safety in public transport travel will not improve in future. Educated personalizes vehicle commuters on the other hand believe that travel time in public transport travel will reduce in future. Personalized vehicle commuters having lower income perceives that availability, safety, connectivity and travel time will improve for public transport travel and thus has potential to shift to public transport in future.