Investigation of Minibus Public Transport Service Characteristics in an Urban Area Through the Use of a Stated and Revealed Preference Survey

The operation of minibuses as public transport modes worldwide is considered as a both efficient and effective way to meet the mobility needs of special population groups in urban areas. Minibus services are more flexible in terms of routing and scheduling as well as more affordable compared to regular bus public transport. This paper investigates the potential introduction and the characteristics of a minibus transit service in the Municipality of Kalamaria (~90,000 pop.) in Thessaloniki Greater Area, Greece. The research is based on a joint revealed and stated preference survey, which took place in 2015 and was addressed to the citizens of the Municipality, where such a minibus service was formerly active. The revealed preference survey mainly explored the current travel behavior of citizens and their level of acceptance for such a service in case of its reopening. The stated preference survey investigated the intentions and travel preferences of the respondents under different scenarios of travel time, service frequency and travel cost. A total of 140 questionnaires was collected and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Causal analysis was conducted to reveal interrelations of respondents’ willingness to use the service depending on the above attributes. According to the research findings, the perceived “quality of service” is strongly associated with safety, reliability and comfort of the transport mode used. Additionally, travel time is considered more important than cost. Although respondents seem to prefer a free of charge service, it was found that Willingness-to-Pay for minibus services ranges around 0.5 euros.