INTRODUCTION
Public transport is defined as buses, trains and other forms of transport that are available to the public, charge set fares, and run on fixed routes as stated in the eleventh edition of Concise Oxford English Dictionary. While, according to Munizaga. M in his article Assessing public transport demand stability using mode choice and quality service data stated that, a public transport user (or customer) can be defined as a person who regularly uses public transport to travel to his/her main activity (work, study, other).
In a research titled Robust models for the utilization of public bus transport services in Malaysia (Jayaraman K. ,Suan J. C. S, Lin S. K ; 2011) the writers mentioned that in general, the public is concerned with the mode of transportation to reach desired destination on scheduled time with minimum cost and maximum flexibility. In this research, it mentioned that Automobile usage has increased multifold during the last few decades in Malaysia mainly attributed to the mobility and flexibility provided by private vehicles.
This is in contrast with public transport (PT) travel in Malaysia which is not reliable and often known as “bad” which also necessitates the sharing of the service with other strangers. Evidence shows that the high dependency on private vehicles in Malaysia is attributed to the economic growth, rising household income, establishment of the Malaysia national car project, fuel subsidies, deficiencies and the poor management of PT system (Kamba et al. , 2007; Kasipillai and Chan, 2008; Mohamad and Kiggundu, 2007). Excessive private vehicles on major roads in Malaysia have created problems in traffic.
According to the information in the UITM mainwebsite, In the Universities Teknologi Mara (UITM) main campus, Shah Alam, Public transport such as buses and cab are really important to the student due to the total of the student in 24 different faculties increasing from time to time. Thus, the main transportation preferred by students is bus in order to travel from one destination to others. Therefore, we decided to do a research on student satisfaction towards the public transportation services provided as the demand on the public transportation especially in the campus are increasing from time to time.
According to Lester parker’s article (2010) claimed that by using public transportation for instance, bus, taxi, train and so on is the best solution to eliminate parking problems instead gives benefits the environment in order to overcome various global issues such traffic congestion, increasing oil consumption and pollution. Besides, it will help students to be more productive as they can utilize their time to do other activities and saves student’s money. However, there are certain problems of riding on public transportation that student still facing due to the inconvenient services, unsafe and consumes time.
For example, student needs to plan their schedules according to bus timings and unable to travel late at night especially to the female students. Due to these problems most of students more prefer to continue to drives their cars rather than shift to “public transportation culture”.
METHODOLOGY
Questionnaire
- Subjects In conducting a study on the UITM students’ perception of the Public Transportation in UITM, a questionnaire was administered. The study was conducted in three different faculties which consist of Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Faculty of Sport Recreation and Faculty of Communication and Media Studies.
- Instrumentation A questionnaire, consisting of three sections, was devised to gather data on the student’s experience of using Public Transportation in UITM. Section A is elicited information on the demographic profile of the students whereby, Section B elicited data regarding the information of the Public Transportation that the students used. In addition, Section C aimed to gather information on the quality of services provided by the Public Transport. The questionnaire required the respondents to indicate their response to a variety of question forms that are multiple choice and rating.
- Data Collection Fifty set of questionnaires were distributed to the three different faculties. Students are selected at random where nineteenth students are selected in the Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, eighteenth students from Faculty of Sport Recreation and thirteenth students in and Faculty of Communication and Media Studies. The distributions of questionnaire are conducted within a week from 2nd-4th May 2012. The respondents were instructed to complete the questionnaire and return them immediately. Each respondent took about ten minutes to answer the questionnaire.
- Data Analysis Data obtained from the questionnaire survey were collected and analyzed. Frequency counts and percentages of the quantifiable data were computed and converted into charts.
CONCLUSIONS
- It can be concluded that the main mode of transport for students in UiTM Shah Alam campus is the bus.
- It can be concluded that the main reason students use public transport is because they do not have own personal transport.
- It can be concluded that public transport services in UiTM Shah Alam campus in terms of cleanliness, comfort, passenger capacity, punctuality and routes need to be improved.
- It can be concluded that students are not happy with the bus driver’s attitude in the areas of helpfulness, politeness, friendliness, responsibility, driving skill and safety.
- It can be concluded that generally, the students are satisfied with the services provided by the public transport services in UiTM Shah Alam .
RECOMMENDATIONS
- It is recommended that Rengit, Rapid KL and Mara Technology University (UiTM) buses increase the frequency of their buses during peak hours.
- It is recommended that the number of seats designed for handicapped students are increased.
- It is recommended that training be provided for bus drivers to make sure they are qualified to drive the bus.
- It is recommended to improve maintenance and cleanliness of buses.
