Analysis of bus passenger comfort perception based on passenger load factor and in-vehicle time

Although bus comfort is a crucial indicator of service quality, existing studies tend to focus on passenger load and ignore in-vehicle time, which can also affect passengers’ comfort perception. Therefore, by conducting surveys, this study examines passengers’ comfort perception while accounting for both factors. Then, using the survey data, it performs a two-way analysis of variance and shows that both in-vehicle time and passenger load significantly affect passenger comfort. Then, a bus comfort model is proposed to evaluate comfort level, followed by a sensitivity analysis. The method introduced in this study has theoretical implications for bus operators attempting to improve bus service quality. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-016-1694-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.