www.TransformingTransportation.org

Socially Sustainable Transport:

Identifying User Needs In Latin American

Transit Reform

Gwen Kash, PhD Candidate, University of North Carolina

at Chapel Hill

Presented at Transforming Transportation 2016

SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT:

Identifying User Needs In Latin American

Transit Reform

GWEN KASHLee Schipper Scholar and PhD Candidate

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

gwenkash@email.unc.edu

All photos by the author

Unless otherwise specified

CHECK THE FIT

ABOUT THE PROJECT

BOGOTÁ & SOACHA, COLOMBIA

TRANSMILENIO

LA PAZ & EL ALTO, BOLIVIA

INFORMAL TRANSPORT

TRANSMILENIO IN 30 SECONDS

9%

22%

22%

24%

26%

36%

Cost

Crime

Lack of…

User Culture

Crowding

Travel Times

WHAT ARE TWO

PROBLEMS WITH TRANSMILENIO

TODAY?

Sample size: 720

Disorganization

TRAVEL TIMES, TRANSLATED:

Not enough buses

The buses pass by

already full. It’s

impossible to enter

Interminable queue

to enter the station

The stations are overflowing.

It’s impossible to catch a bus.

People lose hope.

When buses finally arrive,

everyone wants to get on at

once.

Traffic jams.

CRITICAL INCIDENTS METHOD:

“In the last seven days, on how many days

have you had to make a queue

to enter the station?”

CRITICAL INCIDENTS METHOD:

“In the last seven days, on how many days

have you had to make a queue

to enter the station?”

How much does this experience

bother you?

Most Disliked Less Disliked

Least Disliked

Let full buses pass

Trip longer than usual

Waited 15+ minutes

Someone pushed them

Excessive crowding

Queue to enter the station

Saw someone

Evading

the Fare

or

Jaywalking in the busway

Encountered a

Musician

or

Vendor

Getting the Big Picture:

“DISLIKE FACTORS”(affective reactivity factors)

1. Dislike for

Quality of Service

Problems

Crowding

Pushing

Waiting/Queuing

Travel Times

2. Dislike for

Rule-breaking by other passengers

Fare Evasion

Jaywalking in

Busway

3. Dislike for

Commerce In the system

Vendors

Musicians

THERE IS NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN

WITNESSING

FARE EVASION

THINKING IT’S

A PROBLEM&

EFFECT OF GENDER AND EXPERIENCE ON STRENGTH OF DISLIKE FOR

QUALITY OF SERVICE PROBLEMS

Being female

Sexual assault victim (women)

Robbery victim

Hearing about robbery

Daily experiences

Sample size = 401 R2 = 0.226

+

+

+

+−

“I’m very short, so sometimes I can’t

breathe well.” –TransMilenio user

“I DON’T FEEL COMFORTABLE ON

TRANSMILENIO. YOU’RE ALWAYS ON

THE DEFENSIVE SO THEY DON’T TOUCH

YOU, WATCHING OUT TO SEE WHO’S IN

FRONT OF YOU, WHO’S BEHIND YOU,

WHO’S ALL AROUND YOU.”–TransMilenio user, assault victim

Encountered a

Musician

or

Vendor

HAS SOMEONE

YIELDED THEIR

SEAT TO YOU?

People traveling with

young children:

44%

N = 95

People with a

Disability:

68%

N = 24

Photo: Iván Asturizaga

INTERVIEWS ARE VITAL

FAILING TO EFFECTIVELY IDENTIFY

& PLAN FOR DIVERSE NEEDS

LEAVES PEOPLE BEHIND.

CRITICAL INCIDENTS METHOD: A VALUABLE ADDITION TO SUSTAINABLE

TRANSPORT PLANNERS’ TOOLBOXES

• Matches survey questions to transit

users’ experiences & vocabularies

• Use interviews to adapt to local context

• Can be combined with other methods &

question styles.

• Factor analysis reduces information overload

• Provides detailed, actionable data

SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE

TRANSPORT IMPROVES LIVES.• Measure users’ self-identified needs by

talking with users

• Early and often

• Surveys and Interviews: better together

• Proactively seek out marginalized groups

• Identify and alleviate the extra burdens

vulnerable populations face

YOU CAN FIND THE FIT.

THANK YOU:

Dirección de

Transporte

Daniel Rodriguez, Dario Hidalgo, Carolina Martínez Ávila, Eva Sclippa, Holger Dalkmann,

Larissa Fernándes Da Silva, Óscar Díaz, Ramón Muñoz-Raskin, Rodrigo Criales, Sam

Zimmerman, Tammy Brackett, Travis Green, Vanessa Nwanko, Jim & Carol Tsang, the

bogotanos, soachunos, paceños, and alteños who gave their time to talk to me,

… and many, many others