Student Perceptions of MAT Services
This section of the report focuses on the student respondent's perceptions of the quality of MAT transit system services.
There are many benefits to public transportation. The following (Figure 12) is a list of benefits the students identified as most important to them which included reducing parking demand and reducing traffic congestion as the two greatest benefits.
Figure 12. Benefits to Riding Public Transit (n=445)
The following (Figure 13) are the student respondents who use MAT services with less than 25 percent indicating they use MAT to travel in the community.
Figure 13. Students Using MAT (n=445)
An important issue is what motivates students to use MAT. Survey respondents were asked to state their most important reasons for using MAT from among the following choices (Figure 14). Shopping and going to another campus were the main reasons Concordia students use MAT.
Figure 14. Reason Students Use MAT (n=445)
We asked students to identify the reasons that keep them from riding MAT. We provided potential reasons and asked students to indicate how strongly they agreed, were neutral or disagreed. The primary reason students do not ride transit is their desire to drive, walk or ride bicycle (Figure 15).
Figure 15. Reasons Students do not Ride MAT (n=345)
The characteristics of transit services that are important to customers are analyzed next. To accomplish this we looked at a number of value characteristics such as less stress, convenience, friendly drivers, and environmentally friendly characteristics. Serves the FM area and reliability were the greatest agreed upon values among respondents (Figure 16).
Figure 16. Important Characteristic Values of Public Transportation (n=100)
It is helpful to be aware of how customers perceive their previous MAT service experiences. This response shows if MAT services are living up to expectations (Figure 17). Eighty-one percent of respondents indicated that MAT bus service took them to their desired destination indicating current route locations are well positioned.
Figure 17. Explanation of Experiences (n=100)
In the transit industry, wait times for customers are of utmost importance. According to respondents, a wait time longer than 15 minutes will have a negative influence on ridership (Figure 18).
Figure 18. How Long People are Willing to Wait (n=445)
One of the main factors that determine the value of service is if the customer is willing to pay and how much is he/she willing to pay for the service. More than 70 percent of respondents indicated they are willing to pay $10 or more for MAT services (Figure 19). This shows high appreciation for the service.
Figure 19. How Many are Willing to Pay (n=201)