Importance Performance Analysis of Users’ Perception of the Quality of City Bus Services in Thimphu

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the service quality of the city bus in Thimphu. In this research, importance performance analysis (IPA) was applied with the focus on assessing the city bus service quality from the users’ perspectives. To evaluate service quality, twenty-three items were grouped into six different factors concerning the bus services: bus stop facilities, driver attitude, vehicle, bus capacity, and responsiveness with the use of a five-point Likert scale. The survey was conducted with 182 respondents to grasp the user’ expectations and perceptions on the service quality. The result showed that bus services such as availability of schedule/maps at bus stops; ease of purchasing tickets; timetable of services; driver attitude, which included friendly, helpful, and polite customer service of driver and conductor; and responsiveness of the city bus staff were all managed well. On the other hand, there were not enough bus services and seats during rush hours. These attributes needed further improvement and better management. The results are also supplemented by qualitative findings through face-to-face interviews. The results showed that respondents were satisfied with the ease of purchasing tickets, availability of schedule/maps at bus stops, driver attitude and responsiveness of the city bus staff. On the contrary, respondents were not satisfied with the bus services during rush hours as there were not enough bus services and there were no seats available for most of the passengers. The study recommends focusing on the need of bus services during peak hours and proposes for more buses to ply across different routes. Secondly, the study also recommends revamping and enhancing the current main city bus terminal and considering introducing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) with dedicated lanes and more routes for buses.