Waiting time perception of public transport user: effects of socio-demographic and trip characteristics in Malaysia

Waiting time perceived is how long people think they have had to wait for a service. People waiting for public transportation are more likely to think they have to wait longer than they actually do, especially when they don't have access to traffic data in real time. Nevertheless, there are an amount of concerns involving with public transportation services and limited numbers of studies in Malaysia have investigated waiting time perception. Hence, the aim of this study discussed about the effects of Socio-demographic characteristics and trip characteristics on the waiting time perception of public transport in Malaysia. This involved determining two relationships, which are the relationship between waiting time perception and Socio-demographic characteristics; and the relationship between waiting time perception and trip characteristics. The research study was conducted in Northern States of Malaysia (Penang, Kedah, Perlis, Perak) with an estimated 196 respondents making up the sample size. Descriptive analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) were used to test the hypotheses and figure out which factors were the most important for the research model. Based on the analysis results, it revealed that trip characteristics is significantly associated to waiting time perception. It shows that greater level of trip characteristics contributes to greater level of waiting time perception. The results of the research showed that there is no significant relationship between Socio-demographic characteristics and waiting time perception.