Modelling gender perception of quality in interurban bus services

This paper models how women and men perceive the quality of interurban bus services and proposes a new methodology for detecting the highest priority service variables to act on. Service quality perception was modelled using both ordered logit and ordered probit models using data from revealed preference surveys. The methodology for detecting different priority levels uses the graphic representation of the relationships between influence in the model and average evaluation by users. The modification of certain variables increases the knowledge of how woman evaluate quality in bus services to help promote the use of interurban public transport. Statistical analysis of the data provides some conclusions such as: the proportion of users increases as age decreases for both men and women; and women seem to make shorter and more frequent trips than men. The best model for this data set was ordered logit. As expected, the most relevant variable is the relationship between quality and price. Other important variables are the condition of the bus and the frequency of service.