POLICY DESIGNS, TRAVELER ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS TO ENCOURAGE THE USE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN KUALA LUMPUR

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering

University Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Road traffic has been an increasing urban problem the world over. The congestion it causes not

only inconveniences the road user but also society in general by increasing travel time, fuel

consumption, air and noise pollution and reducing road safety. In Malaysia as elsewhere, there is

the use of own transport prompted by inadequate public transport has resulted in increased traffic

congestion, accidents, inadequate parking space and air pollution among other evils. This study

sought to identify the factors preventing own transport users from shifting to public transport and

to develop model shift from car to public transport in order to formulate the policies to achieve

this. A survey was carried out on users of private and public (both bus and urban train transport)

using the stated preference (SP) and revealed preference (RP) techniques (n = 1200). A binary

and multinomial logit models were developed for the three alternative modes, Car, Bus and Train.

This study found that the most important variables found likely to encourage the use of public

transport were higher parking charges, reduced travel time and subsidized fares. As expected, for

the commuter to switch to public transport he would have to be incentivated to do so.