Neural networks approach for evaluating quality of service in public transportation in rural areas

Abstract

Quality of Service delivered by a transit agency plays a measure role by making it an essential contrivance. The service quality tool provides an insight, for transit agencies on their premeditated objective of improving the transit services offered. Scientific studies have been performed in evaluating transit service quality, which impart a broad prospective of measures for assessing quality of service. In this research Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique is utilized to achieve forecasting model on Quality of service (QoS) provided by the buses on the basis of users opinion. The study developed a prediction model on the basis of data extracted from 401 samples conducted through a questionnaire survey in the rural area, by considering 13 key indicators of quality of service. The paper also evaluates average ratings of indicators of quality of service according to user's satisfaction level to identify impact of key indicators on quality of service offered by the buses.