Analysing the Characteristics and Behaviours of Travellers for

Developing a Trans Padang New Line

Gusri Yaldi

, Imelda M. Nur

and Apwiddhal

Civil Engineering Department, Politeknik Negeri Padang, Kampus Limau Manis, Padang, Indonesia

Business Administration Department, Politeknik Negeri Padang, Kampus Limau Manis, Padang, Indonesia

Keywords: Public Transport, Motorcycle, Trans Padang, Trip Behaviors, Demand.

Abstract: Road traffic accidents in Indonesia could generate an economic loss up to 3.1% GDP. It is considerably

related to annual motor vehicles growth rate of private ones. Therefore, it must be controlled and private

motor vehicle users could be shifted to reliable and affordable public transport services like Trans Padang. It

is a Bus Rapid Transit system managed by Padang city. In order to develop a new line for Trans Padang

service according to the traveller characteristics and trip behaviours, a series of Revealed Preference surveys

were employed to collect those data. It was found 72% of the trip makers conduct their journeys by mode of

motorcycles. Commuting trips are 53% and 20.8% for working and school purposes. About 70% of the trip

was undertaken with a maximum travel time of 20 minutes. The traveller spends about an average Rp.5360

for one journey. Travel time was found as the most important factor in selecting a transport mode. Trans

Padang would be chosen due to its safety and convenience factors. The minimum demand of Trans Padang

is expected to be about 17%. However, Trans Padang service must be supported by law enforcement as well

as by combining the public transport and parking schemes.

1 INTRODUCTION

The global road transport problems faced by many

countries are likely similar. Those are the un-

renewable energy crisis, motor vehicle dependence

and its rapid growth, road congestion, air pollution

and increasing number of road traffic accidents

(Yaldi et al. 2016). In Indonesia, the fossil fuel

energy consumed by the road transport sector could

reach 50% of its annual production (BPPN 2006).

Based on the motor vehicle number which tends to

continuously grow, the road transport sector would

remain as the main consumer of fossil fuel energy in

Indonesia. Meanwhile, the annual petrol production

is unable to supply the domestic demand causing the

government to import the deficit from other

countries. Energy crisis would like to occur in the

future.

Road transport in Indonesia is dominated by

Motorcycles where its recorded number in 2018 was

nearly 107 million units followed by Passenger cars

and Trucks. Buses only contributed less than one per

cent of total number motor vehicles. On average,

the motor vehicle number tends to grow 5.68%

annually (BPS 2019). In contrast, road length in

Indonesia grows only about 2500 Km per annum or

about 0.25% (BPS 2018b). There is a wide gap

between the motor vehicle number and road length

growth rate causing negative impacts of transport to

become more severe. Road traffic crashes were the

8th leading cause of death in the world (WHO

2018). In Indonesia, the recorded number of road

traffic crashes tends to increase by more than 5.6%

annually (BPS 2018a). Furthermore, there is an

additional transport related problem for some Asian

developing countries namely motorcycle domination

like in Malaysia as reported by Masuri et al. (2012)

and Vaya et al. (2019) as well as in Indonesia (BPS

2019). Motorcycles are considered as the easiest

transport mode, however it would also be the most

vulnerable ones (Vaya et al. 2019). As

consequences, the total number of road traffic

accidents were dominated by mode of motorcycles

such as in Malaysia (Masuri et al. 2014), Cambodia

(Sarm and Kanitpong 2016) and also Indonesia

where its number could reach 74% of total number

road traffic accidents (WHO 2018). These negative

impacts are already at an alarming level and hence

must be immediately anticipated in order to

minimize its future damages since it could affect a

Yaldi, G., Nur, I. and Apwiddhal, .

Analysing the Characteristics and Behaviours of Travellers for Developing a Trans Padang New Line.

DOI: 10.5220/0010940900003260

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Applied Science and Technology on Engineering Science (iCAST-ES 2021), pages 109-116

ISBN: 978-989-758-615-6; ISSN: 2975-8246

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

109

nation economy lost. For example, economic loss

due to road traffic congestion could reach three to

six per cent of GDP as reported by Gwilliam (2002)

in Ma et al. (2007) while it could reach 3.1% for

economic loss due to road traffic accidents (RI

2011). Yan Ling et al. (2016) suggest that the

negative impact generated by road traffic could be

reduced by providing more transport facilities and

demand controls, for example by controlling parking

supply and by increasing public transport share like

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The number of BRT in

Indonesia is growing like Trans Padang, a BRT

operated by the local government of Padang city in

West Sumatra Province; however its application is

still debatable in solving transport problems.

Meanwhile, the local government intends to operate

a new line of Trans Padang service. Therefore,

before adopting a transport solution scheme or a

model which is successful in other countries or

cities, it is necessary to examine its applicability

toward local needs. For examples are its demand and

the behaviours as well as characteristics of its

potential users. This is necessary since different

places could have different or unique characteristics

required by transport planners or modellers to

consider. For example is a study by Yaldi et al.

(2008) where local road user characteristics were

applied into a micro simulation model and hence it

generated more reliable results. In addition, it was

claimed that type of road users and vehicle

ownership as the main factors in road accidents

(Wirawan et al. 2018) which are considerably

related to the road user characteristics. Thus, this

research is aimed at finding the characteristics and

behaviours of the future Trans Padang user prior to

operating a new service line.

2 TRANS PADANG

Padang is a major city with population of about one

million located along a coastal line in West Sumatra,

Indonesia. It was reported that the household

average daily trip rate is nearly 9 trips per day where

more than a half trips are for work and school

purposes (Dishub 2012). This number suggests a

high potential demand for reliable transport

facilities, including affordable and reliable public

transport services.

The local government has operated a BRT called

Trans Padang since 2004. It was planned to develop

six lines of Trans Padang as shown by Figures 1 and

2. Those lines are (1) City center-City end, (2) Teluk

Bayur-BIM, (3) City center-Indarung, (4) City

center-Central government, (5) City center-Bungus,

and (6) City center–Andalas university campus.

Lines 1 and 2 have been operating since 2014

and 2021 respectively and other lines would be

operated soon dependent upon its demand and hence

this research becomes essential prior to operating

Trans Padang new lines. It is due to the

characteristics of the future Trans Padang users

including the socio-economic, trip and their

behaviours are analysed through this research. This

is important since the public transport attributes

considered important by the potential user could be

identified based on their socio-economic and trip

characteristics.

Figure 1: Trans Padang Lines.

Figure 2: Existing and future Trans Padang lines.

3 RESEARCH METHOD

The data was collected by using a Revealed

Preference (RP) survey so that the existing trip

maker characteristics and behaviours as well as their

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preferences could be identified. This information

includes existing motor vehicle ownership, trip

mode share, trip purpose, trip cost, trip departure and

arrival, factors in selecting transport mode, preferred

public transport facilities, and Ability to Pay (ATP).

This paper only reported for Trans Padang Line 3

only, namely Line City center-Indarung, which is a

dense area in Padang city. RP survey was

undertaken to collect traveller information during

working days and also on weekends with a total

respondent more than 500 including pilot survey by

means of direct interviews. This is considered an

adequate number of respondents compared to the

daily passengers of existing Trans Padang services.

The respondents were randomly selected along the

Line 3 corridor.

4 DISCUSSION

4.1 Traveller Characteristics

Figure 3 shows that the majority of respondents are

within productive age ranges, where the highest are

within the 20-25 years category followed by 25-30

years. About 50% of respondents work in the private

sector followed by students with a percentage of

33%. The government employees contribute only

8% (see Figure 4 for more details on the respondent

occupation). Once combined together, the work and

school trip percentage becomes 88% indicating a

high commuter number in the study area and hence

required adequate and reliable transport facilities

including public transport services like Trans

Padang.

Figure 3: Respondent distribution based on ages.

Based on motor vehicle ownership, it can be

seen from Figures 5 and 6 that only 28% of

respondents have one private car or more and almost

all of them have motorcycles. It means there is

likely a motorcycle dependent on the traveller daily

life. Furthermore, more than one fourth of travellers

who have private cars also tend to have a

motorcycle. Then, it was found that the percentage

of working or employed respondents is 62% as

depicted by Figure 7 with an average monthly

income of Rp.2.2 million. Thus, one third of

respondents have no income and hence could affect

their decision in selecting transport mode.

Figure 4: Respondent distribution based on profession.

Figure 5: Respondent distribution based on private car

ownership.

Figure 6: Respondent distribution based on motorcycle

ownership.

4.2 Travel Behaviours

The RP survey data suggests that majority

respondents start their journey from homes where

the highest trip purpose is for working followed by

school and shopping with percentages of 53%,

20.8%, and 12.6% consecutively as shown by

Figures 8 and 9. The average travel time was found

Analysing the Characteristics and Behaviours of Travellers for Developing a Trans Padang New Line

111

to be 19.4 minutes where nearly a half of the

traveller required 15 minute reaching their

destination (see Figure 10). Moreover, about 21% of

the trip makers travelled between 16 to 20 minutes.

It means 70% of the trip was undertaken with a

maximum travel time of 20 minutes. The survey data

also suggest that more than 90% of interviewed

travellers have a motorcycle and some of them have

more than one motorcycle. Thus, it could be

estimated that the average daily trip length

conducted by the respondent in Padang city is about

10 Km with the majority transport mode is

motorcycles.

Figure 7: Respondent distribution based on occupation

status.

Figure 8: Respondent distribution based on trip origin.

Figure 9: Respondent distribution based on trip purpose.

The traveller spends about an average Rp.5360

for one journey (Rp. stands for Rupiah= Indonesia

currency, one USD equals to about RP.15000). One

third of travellers spend about Rp.2000-Rp.3000

followed by 2.4% respondents spend about Rp.6000-

Rp.7000 for a trip as shown by Figure 11. These

findings could be related with the transport mode

used by the respondent which the majority is

motorcycles. It was found 72% of the trip makers

conduct their journey by mode of motorcycles. Thus,

in order to attract more motorcyclists to use public

transport, the road transport authority should

consider these travel costs in providing affordable

public transport services as well as a regulation

regarding motorcycle ownership and hence its

growth rate could be controlled. Then, the number of

road traffic accidents could be minimized.

Figure 10: Respondent distribution based on travel time.

Figure 11: Respondent distribution based on travel cost.

It was explained before that almost all of

interviewed travellers have a motorcycle, and nearly

40% of them have more than two motorcycles. Only

38%of respondents have a private car. These

statistics would determine the main transport mode

used by the traveller to conduct their trips as can be

seen in Figure 12. There are six main transport

modes, namely (1) Car, (2) Para Transit, (3) Taxi,

(4) Trans Padang, (5) Bicycle, and (6) Others. Para

transit is a common public transport used by

travellers in Padang city as can be seen in Figure 13.

The highest percentage for main transport mode

used by the traveller belongs to Motorcycle,

followed by Para transit and Private car with

percentages of 75%, 17%, and 7% respectively (see

0 50 100 150 200

1000-2000

2000-3000

3000-4000

4000-5000

5000-6000

6000-7000

7000-8000

8000-9000

>9000

Number of Respondent

Travel cost (Rp.)

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Figure 12 for more details). This trend is strongly

related with the motorcycle ownerships explained

before. Once combined with private cars, the total

percentage of travellers using private motor vehicles

(motorcycle and private car) could reach 82%.

Figure 12: Respondent distribution based on main

transport modes.

Figure 13: Para transit used in Padang city.

4.3 Factors in Selecting Trip Mode

Travel time was found as the most important factor

in selecting a transport mode as reported by Figure

14. It is followed by travel cost, accessibility, safety

and comfort. There is a huge gap between the first

factor and others and it is likely due to a high

motorcycle ownership. This study also investigates

traveller awareness regarding negative impacts of

road traffic such as (1) Energy crisis, (2) Air

pollution, (3) Congestion, (4) Petrol price, and (5)

Road traffic accidents. It seems travel cost and travel

time are considered more important than the

transport negative impacts.

It previously explained that 82% of travellers

conducted their trip by using private motor vehicles

such as motorcycles and private cars. Therefore, the

waiting time was found as zero. It indicates that the

travellers expect transport modes with short waiting

and travel time, and hence private vehicles are

preferred. The government and public transport

operators should consider these preferences in

increasing public transport share and hence the

negative impact resulting from road transport could

be minimized.

Figure 14: Respondent distribution based on factors in

selecting transport mode.

The traveller was also asked their opinion

regarding future Trans City center-Indarung Line

service. Trans Padang would be chosen due to its

safety and convenience factors. The next factor

considered by the traveller is its fare. However, the

travellers prefer to use other transport modes due to

Trans Padang long waiting and travel time as well as

its high stop frequency. It could be influenced by the

poor quality of previous public transport services in

Padang city. In order to capture more travellers

using Trans Padang, it is necessary to provide BRT

service hours based on the traveller trip schedules.

Therefore, the information of traveller working

hours is required. Based on the survey data as

depicted by Figure 15, it is known that 69% of

travellers started their journey before 07.30 AM.

About 11% of travellers start it earlier, namely

before 06.30 AM. Meanwhile, 31% of travellers

begin their journey after 07.30AM. About 61% of

travellers return to their residence before 04.00 PM,

however it is distributed in three different time

ranges namely before 03.00PM,15.00-15.30PM and

1.30-16.30PM where the percentages are 28%, 13%

and 20% respectively (see Figure 16). Then, 39% of

travellers return to their residence starting at

04.00PM. Thus, the peak demand could be predicted

and would occur during 06.30-07.30AM for

morning peak and after 04.00PM for afternoon peak.

This information could be considered by the Trans

Padang operator in designing its operating hours so

that it fits with the traveller needs. The survey data

suggests that the traveller is likely to travel alone

and hence the occupation rate of used transport

mode could be considered only one and the majority

of used transport mode is private motor vehicles.

This trend would result in more vehicles on the road,

especially motorcycles. It could cause more road

traffic accidents involving motorcycles.

Analysing the Characteristics and Behaviours of Travellers for Developing a Trans Padang New Line

113

Furthermore, it also could worsen congestion levels

since road length growth rate is much lower than

motor vehicles as suggested by Morichi (2005) and

Soehodho (2007).

Figure 15: Respondent distribution based on departure

time.

Figure 16: Respondent distribution based on trip end

schedule.

4.4 Estimated Trans Padang Demand

This research also explores the estimated demand of

Trans Padang for the City center-Indarung Line.

Firstly the traveller was asked regarding their

alternative mode of transport as can be seen in

Figures 17 and 18. It can be seen that 81% of

travellers remain with their current transport modes

or called as captive users, and only 19% would use

other transport modes or called as choice users. This

information indicates that the traveller tends to use

private motor vehicles more than others. However,

10.6% of existing captive user transport modes is

public transports (Para transit and Trans Padang).

Once public transport users from captive users

combined with public transport users from choice

users, the percentage becomes 17.1%. This

percentage could be assumed as the minimum

demand of public transports like Trans Padang for

the new line, and it needs to be maintained. The

Trans Padang operator is required to convince them

to use Trans Padang by providing reliable and

affordable Trans Padang services as expected by the

traveller. It includes bus fare, service time table,

travel time and on board convenience facilities as

previously discussed.

Figure 17: Respondent distribution for captive and choice

users.

Figure 18: Captive and choice users based on existing

transport mode.

The choice user was then asked regarding their

type of alternative modes. The options are (1)

Private car; (2) Chartered vehicle; (3) BRT/Trans

Padang; (4) Taxi; (5) Motorcycle; (6) Train; (7)

Bicycle; and (8) Others. The result is displayed in

Figure 19. It can be seen that motorcycles are still

the main alternative transport mode and followed by

private cars. However, About 33% of travellers are

still undecided about their alternative transport

modes. Further, it was found that 11% of choice

users would shift to Trans Padang services. This is

interesting since the Trans Padang service for City

center-Indarung is still unavailable. This promising

information suggests that the traveller expects this

line to be immediately operated.

The average travel cost for different road user

categories are reported in Table 1. The highest one

belongs to captive road users which is Rp.5630 per

trip and followed by all traveller categories which is

Rp.5360. Meanwhile, it is Rp.4414 per trip for

choice users. This data indicates that in order to

encourage more travellers using Trans Padang

services the bus fare should be lower than these

travel costs, especially for choice road users where

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the average cost for a trip is much lower compared

to other road user categories.

Furthermore, Figure 19 shows the Ability to Pay

(ATP) of choice user as illustrated by full

continuous line. It can be seen that there is a huge

gap between the travellers ATP for one trip once

using public transports compared to the existing

average travel cost for one trip. The highest ATP is

Rp.7000 per trip and the lowest one is Rp.1000 per

trip. The average ATP is Rp.2399 per trip which is

much less than the average travel cost per trip. It can

also be seen that only about 36% choice users have

the same ATP with average travel cost per trip. This

gap could arise since the traveller seems to use the

motorcycle as the benchmark in defining their ATP

once using public transport.

Table 1: Traveller average cost per trip.

No. Traveller type Average travel cost/trip (Rp.)

1. All 5360

2. Captive 5601

3. Choice 4414

Figure 19: Captive and choice users based on existing

transport mode.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the findings from this research it can be

seen that the majority of travellers along the future

Line of Trans Padang discussed in this study (Line

3) tends to use motorcycles as the main transport

modes. Although motorcycles use much less road

space than other kinds of transport modes and hence

its contribution in road congestion seems also minor,

it may cause other negative impacts of road transport

like road traffic crashes. Therefore, its growth rate is

required to be controlled and motorcyclists are

encouraged to use safer trip modes like Trans

Padang service. However, the road transport

authority and public transport operator are

recommended to fulfil the motorcyclist preferences

regarding public transport facilities so that mode

shift could occur, especially for City center-Indarung

Line.

Those preferences include bus fare, service time

table, travel time and on board convenience

facilities. The minimum service standard for road

public transport could be referred to Indonesian

Ministry of Transportation Rule No.10 published in

2012 (Mangindaan 2012). It is admitted that reliable

and affordable public transports itself is perhaps

unable to encourage a significant number of

motorcyclists to use public transports. It must be

supported by serious law enforcement as well as by

combining the public transport schemes and parking

schemes. The future research would be directed to

these two aspects.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The researcher would like to thank The Indonesian

Ministry of National Education, Culture, Research,

and Technology for funding this research.

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