Decongesting urban areas through implementation of soft transportation policies encouraging public transport usage: Explaining critical success factors from commuters’ experience

Abstract

Urban congestion has been a big impediment to socio-economic development which has led to endless search for ways to curb it. In Dar es Salaam, the government opted for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to encourage public transport usage. The belief is that, with the presence of BRT, private vehicle users will change their travel behaviour towards public transport usage. However, the shift towards using public transport is considered unstable because transport planners believe soft transportation policy won’t produce long term effects. This sceptical belief led to the expansion of roads that motivate private vehicle usage due to the reduction of driving costs. The interplay of scepticism of transport planners and an inclination to switching to private vehicle usage affects the long term impact of implementing a BRT system. This study adopted for a descriptive design to explain the factors that influence public transport usage. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire along the BRT phase one network and were subjected to descriptive analysis and principal component analysis. Results depicted lower levels of using BRT buses as a primary commuting option. Results further indicated that, about using BRT buses, commuters stated that travel time reduction and reliability, service accessibility and assurance and trip safety and tangibles were key service quality factors. Thus, BRT faces a low adoption rate; hence private vehicle usage has increased along BRT corridors. To increase and ensure the sustainability of BRT, it is imperative that the quality of service be improved and road expansion to city centre be abated.