3. Student Perceptions of MAT Services
This section of the report focuses on students' perception of the quality of MAT service. Questions focused on the benefits of public transportation in general and MAT in specific, potential trip purposes using MAT, deterrents to MAT use, user experiences, and maximum wait times.
3.1 Benefits of Public Transportation
There are many benefits to public transportation. These benefits range from reducing parking demand, saving money, safety and saving time (Figure 10). The majority of respondents felt that public transit services help reduce parking demand, traffic congestion, and save money. These benefits were identified consistently by students across the three campuses. However, Concordia students placed a significantly higher emphasis on environmental concerns relative to NDSU and MSUM students with 54 percent identifying the benefit as opposed to 35 percent of NDSU and 45 percent of MSUM students.
Figure 10. Benefits to Riding Public Transit (n=1,380)
3.2 MAT Ridership
Changes in MAT ridership are presented in Figure 11. The percentage of respondents attending Concordia that use the MAT decreased to 27 percent of survey respondents (Figure 11). This compares to 22 percent in 2002-03 and 35 percent in 2003-04. Twenty-seven percent of MSUM respondents stated that they had ridden MAT. Twenty-five percent of these students stated that they had used MAT to make trips to or from campus. The percentage of NDSU students responding to the survey that use the MAT increased to 43 percent (Figure 11). This compares to 20 in 2002-03 and 32 percent in 2003-04. Forty-four percent of the NDSU MAT riders said they had used MAT to travel to or from campus.
Figure 11. 2005 Students Using MAT (n=1,380)
3.3 Trip Purpose
An important issue is what motivates students to use MAT. Survey respondents were asked to select the most important reasons for using MAT from a list of choices (Figure 12). Just more than half of the respondents stated that they would consider using the MAT to travel to and from campus. Forty-three percent would consider the MAT as a travel option to get around campus. Just fewer than 40 percent would do so when planning their trips to other campuses.
Figure 12. Reasons Students Use MAT (n=1,380)
3.4 Reasons for Not Using MAT
Those who don't currently ride MAT were given a set of possible reasons for not using MAT services and asked to respond with a level of agreement with the reason (Figure 13). Preferring to drive/walk/bike, it takes too long, and reliability were the main reasons that keep students from riding.
Figure 13. Factors Keeping Users from Using MAT Services (n=891)
3.5 Valued Attributes of MAT
The value of the characteristics of transit services are also of interest. The choices provided included free service, convenience, friendly drivers, and environmentally friendly characteristics (Figure 14). Respondents indicated that free service, friendly drivers, reliability and being environmentally friendly were the most important characteristics. Once again Concordia students were more conscious of the environmental value of public transportation. Seventy-seven percent of Concordia students identified the attribute while only 56 percent of NDSU and 50 of MSUM students did.
Figure 14. Characteristic Values of Public Transportation (n=492)
3.6 MAT User Experiences
Figure 15 describes students' opinion of previous MAT experiences by presenting the percentage of respondents that agreed or strongly agreed that a given measure was met. Seventy-nine percent stated that it took them where they wanted to go. Seventy-eight percent felt that it was easy to use. Seventy-four percent agreed or strongly agreed that the bus was clean. There was little variation in responses among students from different campuses.
Figure 15. MAT User Experience (n=492)
3.7 Acceptable Wait Times for Next Bus
Sixty-one percent of respondents indicated they would wait 15 minutes for the next bus. Eight percent would wait 30 minutes, while 30 percent would not wait at all. Wait times of 45 minutes and 60 minutes had very minimal responses, together equaling less than 1 percent. The responses were similar across campuses.
3.8 Acceptable Trip Times by Bus
Thirty-seven percent of respondents felt that an acceptable trip time of less than 10 minutes between their home and campus would be acceptable. Forty-two percent felt that trip times between 10 and 15 minutes would be tolerable, while 12 percent more would accept times up to 20 minutes.
These values differ significantly by school with Concordia students being significantly less accepting of long trips times with 46 percent indicating that they would accept trips 10 minutes or less. Only 35 percent of NDSU students and 24 percent of MSUM students were that demanding. This preference is likely correlated with the high proportion of Concordia students who live near their campus relative to those who attend NDSU and MSUM.