First group Bus Travel - Research Paper Example

First group Bus Travel Market research on reluctance of people towards public transportation Table of Contents Introduction 3 2.Research objective 4 3. Literature Review 4 3.1 Psychological aspect of reluctance of individuals towards public transportation 4 3.1.1Habit 5 3.1.2Justification of behaviour 5 3.1.3Symbolic aspect of personal vehicle 5 3.2 Secondary market research on reluctance to public transportation 6 3.2.1Low income group 6 3.2.2Rural population 6 3.2.3People with disability and of older age group 6 3.2.4Privacy and safety 7 3.2.5Convenience 7 3.2.6Rigid time schedule 7 3.2.7Routing 7 4. Research methodology 8 4.1Data Collection 8 4.2Sampling 8 4.3Data collection instrument 8 4.4Research philosophy 8 4.5Research approach 9 4.6Ethical consideration 9 5. Timeline 9 9 Reference list 10 1. Introduction Market research is concerned with systematic gathering, analysis and interpretation of data associated with both organisations and its environment so that the information produced is useful to clients for taking decisions related to marketing strategies. Market research usually involves collecting information about customers, products and competitors’ profiles. Conducting this act is necessary before a number of activities such as, investing in a new venture, new product planning and entry to new market. Moreover, market research can be of different types. It can be academic market research, non-profit market research, commercial market research and in-house market research (Aaker, Day and Kumar, 2001). The main features of a market research are: Solution-oriented: Researches are usually employed in order to find solution to a particular problem, but sometime they are used to identify details about a particular situation or scenario. Researches are always done as per requirement, without compromising on any detail. This helps to serve the purpose of the research undertaken. Non-neutral: Market research can never be neutral in nature. This is because of the reason that research is based on details provided by the client. Hence, the latter’s biasness is always present. Confidential: Academic researches that are undertaken by government organisations are mostly published in paper or online. However, client based market research are kept confidential, keeping in view sensitiveness of information contained. Time and cost constraint: Market research that is undertaken for a specific purpose always contain time and cost factor, unless it is undertaken by an organisation’s in-house market research department. The cost is budget of the organisation that the researcher needs to depend upon and time is the deadline for completion of research report (Aaker, Day and Kumar, 2001). The case study explained the journey of First Group from being a small municipally-owned bus company to the transport giant of United Kingdom. Presently, bus service of the company operates in all urban areas of United Kingdom. As per the company, they operate closely with the government, local bodies and shareholders in order to achieve maximum efficiency and customer satisfaction. However, the main concern of First Group is that although people are aware of environment footprints as well as are taking measures to prevent the same, yet they seem reluctant to use public transport. This research proposal gives a brief description of the reasons behind people’s reluctance to avail public transport. It will serve as a ground work over which an extended research can be carried out in the future. 2. Research objective The research objective of the proposal is to conduct a market survey in order to determine the unwillingness of individuals towards availing public transports. The transport companies in United Kingdom are baffled by the fact individuals are concerned about carbon footprints caused by car fumes and consumption of fuel, yet personal vehicles are their first preference. Based on the scenario presented by the case study, the research objective is: To determine the reasons behind reluctance of people towards public transportation. 3. Literature Review 3.1 Psychological aspect of reluctance of individuals towards public transportation Use of private transportation modes lead to air pollution, traffic congestion and poor health condition of the riders due to lack of exercise. If the final goal is to reduce carbon footprint and improve overall quality of environment and living standards, then it is very important to reduce the use of private transportation (Nillson and Küller, 2000). Various researches suggest that certain behaviour is exhibited by individuals because of others’ attitude towards that particular behaviour and perceived norms (Steg, Vlek and Slotegraaf, 2001). Assumptions suggest that behavioural pattern of using personal vehicle is discretionary in nature and can be influenced by providing right information. With appropriate information, individuals are likely to make sustainable choices and decisions. There is evidence that signifies that willingness of people towards preferring private/public transportation mode is affected by their own assumptions as well as that of others. Certain behaviours such as, choice of transport mode, do get influenced by altruistic attitude; that is, people can use their personal vehicle lesser if they perceive that to have a good impact on their future generation, community and environment (The Psychologist, 2012). According to authors, people are aware of the harmful impact of excessive usage of personal vehicle on health and environment. Yet, they hardly act on it. Statistics suggest that on an average, people spend around 230 hours in a car and as little as 70 hours walking every year (Litman and Burwell, 2006). Around 70% people accepted that they are aware of the pollution caused by car exhausts and fumes, while 43% said that they can walk or cycle for less than two miles, instead of driving (Department for Transport, 2013b). There are a number of psychological factors that explain why people fail to act upon their will, some of those are: 3.1.1 Habit Decisions made by individuals regularly are often instantaneous in nature; such as, an individual having a car hardly considers other modes of transport. It is only when people do not find their car keys; they look forward to alternative choices. Habit is developed when an act is done repeatedly without thinking or planning consciously. Hence, choice of using personal vehicle is also similar to a habit for several people, which they do not prefer to alter (The Psychologist, 2012). 3.1.2 Justification of behaviour It is human psychology that when people act in a certain way, they also tend to justify the same. For instance, when asked to individuals the reason of inclination towards personal vehicle, they provided reasons such as, comfort, flexibility, safety and speed. Justification of behaviour affects individuals in such a manner that they tend to overlook minor changes in relevant factors such as, better facilities and improvement of public transportation (Steg, 2003). 3.1.3 Symbolic aspect of personal vehicle Symbolic aspect of personal vehicle expresses the fact that people do not simply drive personal vehicles only because it is comfortable, time-saving and safe, but also to uphold their social symbol. Moreover, there is bandwagon effect, which influences individuals to follow a trend. For instance, if three out of five colleagues of an individual drive their personal vehicle to work then this influences him as well to do so (Steg, 2003). 3.2 Secondary market research on reluctance to public transportation Secondary market research relies upon print and electronic database for collecting relevant information. Research related to public transport conveys that certain sections of the society have greater inclination toward availing public transportation, based on their demographic circumstances, geographic location and physical and financial conditions. Social groups that mainly prefer public transportation over personal vehicle are low earning and unemployed people, rural population, disabled individuals and elderly people, young individuals of age group 16-24 years. Nonetheless, studies also suggest a range of problems faced by these people while availing public transport (The Psychologist, 2012). 3.2.1 Low income group Individuals belonging to low income group cannot afford personal vehicle or maintenance cost associated with it. Hence, they prefer bus and other modes of public transportation. However, at late hours, particularly at night, public transportations are hardly available. Also, in case of health emergency, public transportation mode is not a good option (Stradling, 2002). 3.2.2 Rural population Rural areas do not have highly maintained roads, fuel stations and car servicing zones, which prevent people from owning personal vehicles and make public transport their first choice. Yet, according to studies, public transportation services are often very limited in remote or rural locations, in terms of number as well as time schedule. So, this contributes towards increasing dependency of people on private transportation modes (Arcury, et al., 2005). 3.2.3 People with disability and of older age group Old people and those with disability are key users of public transportation modes since driving is not a safe option for them, yet they cannot afford to stay socially secluded. Despite the necessity, public vehicles do not provide enough flexibility, in terms of physical accessibility (Coughlin, 2001). Disabled individuals often face difficulty with boarding and leaving a vehicle. Aged people often feel claustrophobic in crowded buses. In addition, people with reading disabilities or dyslexia have trouble reading time-tables or signs at bus stops (Fischer and Sullivan, 2002). In addition to these reasons, there are some more disadvantages associated with public transportation. 3.2.4 Privacy and safety Modes of public transport such as, bus and train provide no privacy to travellers. Buses take passengers till they are completely crowded and this provide no personal space to travellers. There is no way one can prevent the passenger sitting or standing beside from having a look into one’s laptop or listen to telephonic conversation or sneaking in personal belongings. Often in empty bus, incidences of misbehaviour and robbery have been reported. Another factor is that in a public transportation, a passenger might get exposed to germs from other individuals, who are coughing, sneezing or have a contagious disease (Friman, Pedersen and Kristensson, 2011). 3.2.5 Convenience When they go for shopping or to purchase heavy items, public transportation proves to be inconvenient. It can be a hassle to take different buses to go in different directions. Moreover, with a lot baggage, it is quite difficult to opt for public transportation as the amount of space available is limited (Friman, Pedersen and Kristensson, 2011). 3.2.6 Rigid time schedule The time schedule of public transportation is rigid and proves unsuitable for many travellers. The main reason is often the time schedule of public transportations does not conform to that of the passengers. A number of passengers said that they had to delay their travel plans due unavailability of buses on time. As a result, they got delayed for their destination (Stradling, 2002). 3.2.7 Routing Public transportation modes like, buses, has a pre-decided route. The buses ply on this preset routes and travel from point to point. Hence, passengers need to be at specific stops for availing the bus services. This sometimes causes serious trouble to passengers, as told to the author (Stradling, 2002). 4. Research methodology 4.1 Data Collection Questionnaire survey has been considered as the most appropriate method for collecting data in this research proposal. The researcher will conduct the survey on the internet where random public transport user can participate. The researcher has decided to use structured questions with multiple choices as they are easier to answer by respondents, reduces error and complexity and convenient for the researcher to analyze. Alongside, he has used online databases, published reports and journals for preparing the literature review. 4.2 Sampling Different people have different opinion about public transport which shows that majority of population avail public transport. Therefore, the most convenient sampling method to be applied for collection of data is random sampling method. Through this method, the researcher will be able to find out about the public transport users as well as those who does not avail public transport and the reason behind it. Since the sample will consist of randomly selected general public, the chance of obtaining unbiased and quality data is high. 4.3 Data collection instrument The data collection instrument that will be employed by the researcher is structured questionnaire method for fulfilling the purpose of the research. The underlying rationale of using this method is to have a holistic overview of the research problem. The research survey will also provide a better insight of the perception of the public transport users and non-users. The questionnaire provides participants freedom to express their viewpoint within a structured framework. 4.4 Research philosophy The research proposal focuses on undertaking a comprehensive analysis of the qualitative data that will be obtained from the online survey of public transport users and non-users. Due to qualitative nature of data, the interpretive research philosophy has taken in consideration. Interpretative research thoroughly analyse the data for openness and objectivity to arrive at a generalized theory. The philosophy is most appropriate because activities related to this survey are interview and questionnaire survey, that helps in assessing human behaviour and understand the underlying intentions (Mukherji and Albon, 2009). 4.5 Research approach In this proposal, for conducting the research successfully, inductive research approach has been considered. The main reason of using this method is that it focuses on specific problem and eventually outlines a generalized theory. The fundamental implementation of research approach lies in analysis and interpretation of different opinions and reaches an appropriate conclusion (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhil, 2009). The researcher can extract valuable information about individual’s reluctance towards public transport and deduce a theory that can be later employed by various companies to increase the number of users. 4.6 Ethical consideration The researcher will be held responsible for not disclosing the identity of the participants. The researcher will not influence by any means the participants to take part in the survey. The researcher will abide by the Guidelines of Human Ethics Committee while conducting the questionnaire survey. The researcher will be responsible for informing the outcome of the research to any participant, who is interested in the research. 5. Timeline (Author’s creation) Reference list Aaker, D. A., Kumar, V. and Day G., 2001. Marketing Research. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Arcury, T. A., Preisser, J. S., Gesler, W. M. and Powers, J. M., 2005. Access to transportation and health care utilization in a rural region. The Journal of Rural Health, 21(1), pp.31-38. Beirão, G. and Sarsfield Cabral, J. A., 2007. Understanding attitudes towards public transport and private car: A qualitative study. Transport policy, 14(6), pp. 478-489. Coughlin, J., 2001. Transportation and older persons: Perceptions and preferences: A report on focus groups. [pdf] AARP, Public Policy Institute. Available at: [Accessed 02 May 2014]. Department for Transport, 2013a. Bus statistics. [pdf] Department for Transport. Available at: [Accessed 02 May 2014]. Department for Transport, 2013b. Valuing the social impacts of public transport. [pdf] Department for Transport. Available at: [Accessed 02 May 2014]. Fischer, G. and Sullivan Jr, J., 2002. Human-centered public transportation systems for persons with cognitive disabilities. Proceedings of the Participatory design conference, pp. 194-198. Litman, T. and Burwell, D. 2006. Issues in sustainable transportation. International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 6(4), pp. 331-347. Mukherji, P. and Albon, D., 2009. Research Methods in Early Childhood: An Introductory Guide. London: SAGE. Nillson, M. and Küller, R., 2000. Travel behaviour and environmental concern. Transportation research part D, 5, pp. 211-234. Pedersen, T., Friman, M. and Kristensson, P., 2011. Reluctance to use Public Transport: Effects of a Defocusing Technique on Car Users Predicted Satisfaction with Public Transport. [pdf] Envpsych. Available at: [Accessed 02 May 2014]. Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhil, A., 2009. Research Methods for Business Students. 3rd ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Sinha, K. C., 2003. Sustainability and urban public transportation. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 129(4), pp.331-341. Steg, L., 2003. Can public transport compete with the private car? [pdf] IATSS Research. Available at: [Accessed 02 May 2014]. Steg, L., Vlek, C. and Slotegraaf, G., 2001. Cognitive-Reasoned and Affective-Emotional Motives for Using a Motor Car. Transportation research-f: psychology and behavior, 4(3), pp.1-19 Stradling, S. G., 2002. Transport user needs and marketing public transport. Proceedings of the ICE-Municipal Engineer, 151(1), pp.23-28. The Psychologist, 2012. The psychology of sustainable transport. [online] Available at: [Accessed 02 May 2014]. Read More