Public Road Transport Performance and Travellers Satisfaction in Urban Areas: The Case of Public Bus Transport in Dar es Salaam

The objective of this study was to examine the performance of public bus transport on travellers’ satisfaction. A total of 140 bus commuters in Dar es Salaam region were interviewed. Questionnaire was employed as a major instrument in collection of primary data while documentation was used for secondary data. Regression analysis and Chi square test were used in analysis of data. Findings revealed that public bus transport performance in urban areas was very poor and travellers were highly dissatisfied with the kind of service the industry was rendering. Conclusively, the study has revealed that there is a weak positive relationship between user satisfaction and performance of public buses. The study recommends opening new routes especially in new areas and improving efforts to overcome traffic congestions. Introduction Transportation in urban areas has been very critical and of major concern in almost all mega cities in the world (Githui et al, 2008). Due to the rapid and uncontrolled urban growth and vehicle increase there has been a conspicuous impact both positively and negatively (Githui et al, 2008). Most commuters in various parts of the world express their level of dissatisfaction with the quality of services offered by urban public transport operators (Richard, 2005). In developing countries, public’s travel demands in cities have increased leading to complexity in the provision extra capacity to handle and control the situation effectively (Githui et al, 2008). Problems of access to can be linked to economy problems, lack of equity in the provision of services, and poor or unaffordable transport links to enable mobility (Baker et al, 2009). Additionally, the issue of seat availability and geographical reach of public bus services seems to be a challenge due to low density of paved roads, unplanned growth, poor road surface and narrow streets (Kumar et al, 2008). People tend to complain about poor quality of roads, buses overcrowding, unpredictable irregular services and inadequate terminal facilities (Kumar et al, 2008). Vikash (2003) argued that the demand for public transport during peak hours is very high compared to its capacity, thus leads to poor provision of service especially during these peak hours. There is therefore a big gap between transportation needs and the means to satisfy those needs (Olvera et al, 2003). Dar es Salaam city is one of the main cities in Africa faced by tremendous population growth accompanied by rapid and unplanned urban growth (Olvera et al, 2003). As population continues to increase and as the city continues to grow, more people live and work in the city and make more trips within the urban area, often over longer distances. Consequently, the limited capacity of existing transport infrastructure is stretched to the limit and thus, it has become a constraint to cope with the public demand for travel. Basing on these, the performance of public transportation in Dar-es-Salaam in social, economic and environmental aspects is thus distressing (Kanyama et al, 2005). The most common form of public transport in Dar es Salaam are privately owned buses commonly known as “daladala” which play specifics routes. The starting station and destination place are marked on the front of the vehicle. Most of the “daladala” workers