THE QUALITY OF INTRA URBAN PASSENGER BUS SERVICES IN ZARIA, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Regardless of the vital role that intra urban transportation play in any urban area, their services are frequently insufficient to meet passengers demand and services for their daily commuting. This study assesses the quality of intra urban passenger bus services in Zaria urban area, Nigeria, taking into recognition the perception of passengers. The specific objectives were to map the area coverage and route of intra urban passenger bus services, estimate the average walking distance, waiting time, passenger’s access to areas of bus pick up and alight points, determine the passenger bus service quality attributes that influence passenger satisfaction and transportation problems encountered by passengers and investigate the passengers’ perception on the quality of bus services in the study area. A purposive sampling technique was used in the administration of questionnaire to 384 passengers. A five-point Likert scale with “strongly agree” equal 5, “agree” equal 4, “undecided” equal 3, “disagree” equal 2, and “strongly disagree” equal 1 was used in the rating. Maps, descriptive statistics, tables, graphs and percentage analysis were used to summarize the data collected. This study revealed that majority of the passengers (74.5%) walk within the range of 1-400 metres to access a bus, and a total of 73.5% of the passengers waited between 1 - 20 minutes before the arrival of a bus, while 44.5% of the passengers walk to their nearest bus pick up and alight point. Furthermore, the study revealed that passengers showed satisfaction with transport price with a mean of (3.4), and were undecided on the sufficiency of buses and frequency of bus services with a mean of (3.0), resulting to the conclusion that passengers of public bus transport are not satisfied with the services provided in Zaria urban area of Kaduna state. The study therefore recommends “quality indicators” for public bus transport to be used to benchmark high quality.