Determinants of Public Transport in Sydney

This study analyzes the transport behavior of employees going to work in Sydney. The study found that cost, efficiency, comfortability, and time-saving are the main factors that influence the use of public transport. Results show that cost has the highest weight in influencing the use of public transport, followed by efficiency, time-saving, and comfortability. The study also found no significant difference in the proportion of male and female participants who choose public transportation to go to work.

Determinants of public transport in Sydney
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23rd October 2018

Executive summary
Several factors were found to influence the travelers choice on using public transport. A sample
size used for the study was 100 participants living in Sydney. Among the factors were the cost,
efficiency, comfortability and time saving. The study established that these factors had different
weights in influencing the use of transport to work. Cost was found to have a higher weight
towards the use of public transport followed by efficiency, time saving and comfortability in that
order. Results also showed that there is no significant difference in the proportion of male
participants who choose public transportation to go to work and the female participants who
choose public transportation to go to work.

Table of Contents
Executive summary..................................................................................................................................2
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................4
Research Design........................................................................................................................................5
Hypothesis Development.........................................................................................................................5
Results and Discussion.............................................................................................................................6
Descriptive Statistics....................................................................................................................6
Frequencies..................................................................................................................................7
Why choose public transport?......................................................................................................9
Normality Tests..........................................................................................................................10
Inferential Statistics....................................................................................................................11
Inputs..........................................................................................................................................13
Results........................................................................................................................................14
CI plot.....................................................................................................................................14
Conclusion and Implication...................................................................................................................15
Appendix..................................................................................................................................................16

Introduction
Transport is a standout amongst the most essential angles in the everyday existence of the
general population, as their activities can't be fulfilled without moving. The general population's
development firmly related with their social statistic trademark, for example, sexual orientation,
marital status, age, level of education, occupation, and also the family member's activities. The
activities depend on various purposes, which are educational activities, working activities,
recreational activities, shopping, etc. There are various modes of transport and people can always
pick the desired mode to use. The different modes of transport are presently coming various
perspectives from the customary models.
Presently people have a tendency to pick the mode that is secure, comforting, trip distance,
reliability of the mode as well as the cost involved. Understanding travel behavior is very
essential in informing stakeholders. Behavior survey is often adopted as a method to understand
individual travel behavior. This study therefore sought to understand the transport behavior of
employees going to work.

Research Design
The study is a cross-sectional descriptive study where a sample of 100 participants was collected.
Primary data for a Sydney transport behavior survey was used to perform analysis. The dataset is
given in appendix 1 below. There are 4 variables and the description of the variables is given
below;
Table 1: Variable description
Variable Description Type
Gender Gender of the participant Nominal
Age Age of the participant Numeric
Transport Preferred mode of transport
when going to work
Nominal
Public transport Why choose public transport? Nominal
Time1 Time taken to work place in
office hours
Numeric
Time2 Time taken to work place in
non-office hours
Numeric
Hypothesis Development
The main aim of this study was to analyze the transport behavior among the employees going to
work. The hypothesis was built based on the following research questions;
1. Do people tend to choose public transportation to go to work than private transportation?
2. Does public transport take more time in office hours than in non-office hours?
3. Does the proportion of females who choose public transport differ with that of the males?
4. Does age of the person influence on the type of transport used to go to work?
5. What factors makes people choose public transport over private transport?

From the above research questions, the following hypothesis were tested;
1. H0: There is no significant difference in the proportion of people who choose public
transportation to go to work and those who choose private transportation.
HA: There is significant difference in the proportion of people who choose public
transportation to go to work and those who choose private transportation.
2. H0: There is no significant difference in time taken by public transport in office hours and
in non-office hours.
HA: There is significant difference in time taken by public transport in office hours and in
non-office hours.
3. H0: There is no significant difference in the proportion of male participants who choose
public transportation to go to work and the female participants who choose public
transportation.
HA: There is significant difference in the proportion of male participants who choose
public transportation to go to work and the female participants who choose public
transportation to go to work.
Results and Discussion
Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive statistics were performed to understand the data distribution. The table below gives
the descriptive statistics.
Table 2: Descriptive statistics
Time1 Time2 Age
Mean 32.81 24.01 45.36
Standard Error 0.71 0.58 1.12
Median 33.00 23.00 45.00

Mode 37.00 23.00 36.00
Standard Deviation 7.09 5.78 11.17
Sample Variance 50.24 33.42 124.78
Kurtosis -0.96 -0.97 -1.04
Skewness -0.12 0.20 -0.01
Range 25.00 20.00 40.00
Minimum 20.00 15.00 25.00
Maximum 45.00 35.00 65.00
Sum 3281.0
0
2401.00 4536.00
Count 100 100 100
The average age of the participants was 45.36 years with the oldest participants being 65 years of
age and the youngest being 25 years of age. The median age was 45 years old.
The average time taken to reach the work place in office hours was 32.81 minutes with the
highest recorded time being 45 minutes and the lowest time recorded being 20 minutes. The
median time was 33 minutes.
The average time taken to reach the work place in non-office hours was 24.01 minutes with the
highest recorded time being 35 minutes and the lowest time recorded being 15 minutes. The
median time was 23 minutes.
Frequencies
In terms of gender, majority of the respondents were male participants (55%, n = 55) while 45%
(n = 45) said to be females.

Figure 1: Gender of the participants
In terms of preference for the transport, most said to prefer public transport (69%, n = 69) as
compared to the private transport (31%, n = 31).
Figure 2: Preferred mode of transport

Why choose public transport?
In order to determine the factors that influence people to use public transport, respondents were
asked the reason behind their choosing public transport. Majority (52.2%, n = 36) chose public
transport because of the cost. They believe it is much cheaper than to use private means.
Efficiency came distant second at 18.8% (n = 13) while time saving and comfortability came
third and fourth respectively at 17.4% (n = 12) and 11.6% (n = 8) respectively.
Table 3: Reasons for choosing public transport
n %
Cost 36 52.2%
Efficiency 13 18.8%
Comfortability 8 11.6%
Time saving 12 17.4%
Figure 3: Reasoning for choosing public transport

Normality Tests
In attempt to test whether the three numeric variables (time1, time2 and age) follows a normal
distributions, we constructed a histogram and also performed a normality test. The results are
given in the table and figures below;
Table 4: Tests of Normality
Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk
Statistic df Sig. Statistic df Sig.
Time taken to reach the
work place in office hours
.084 100 .081 .965 100 .009
Time taken to reach the
work place in non-office
hours
.089 100 .047 .959 100 .003
Age of the participant .081 100 .100 .963 100 .007
a. Lilliefors Significance Correction
The table above (table 3), based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, only time taken to reach the
work place in non-office hours showed that the data does not follow normal distribution (p <
0.05). The other two variables (taken to reach the work place in office hours and age of the
respondent) showed that the data follows a normal distribution (P > 0.05). The histograms
provided below further confirms the conclusions made from the table.

Inferential Statistics
Hypothesis 1:
This hypothesis sought to test the following;
1. H0: There is no significant difference in the proportion of people who choose public
transportation to go to work and those who choose private transportation.
HA: There is significant difference in the proportion of people who choose public
transportation to go to work and those who choose private transportation.
Using one sample proportion test, we found the results as given below;
Table 5: One-Sample Statistics
N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
Transport 100 .6900 .46482 .04648

Table 6: One-Sample Test
Test Value = 0
t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean
Difference
95% Confidence Interval of the
Difference
Lower Upper
Transport 14.844 99 .000 .69000 .5978 .7822
Clearly, the proportion of those who use public transport to work is more than that of those who
use private transport to work (p < 0.05).
Hypothesis 2:
This hypothesis sought to test the following;
1. H0: There is no significant difference in time taken by public transport in office hours and
in non-office hours.
HA: There is significant difference in time taken by public transport in office hours and in
non-office hours.
This was tested using t-test and the results are presented in the table below;
Table 7: t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances
Time1 Time2
Mean 32.73913 24.65217
Variance 47.72506 33.90665
Observations 69 69
Pooled Variance 40.81586
Hypothesized Mean
Difference 0
df 136
t Stat 7.434987
P(T<=t) one-tail 5.28E-12
t Critical one-tail 1.656135
P(T<=t) two-tail 1.06E-11
t Critical two-tail 1.977561

The results from the t-test shows that there is significant difference in the amount of time taken
to travel to work during the office hours and the non-office hours (p < 0.05). The average time
taken during the office hours (M = 32.74, SD = 6.91) was significantly more than the time taken
to travel to work during the non-office hours (M = 24.65, SD = 5.82).
Hypothesis 3:
This hypothesis sought to test the following;
1. H0: There is no significant difference in the proportion of male participants who choose
public transportation to go to work and the female participants who choose public
transportation.
HA: There is significant difference in the proportion of male participants who choose
public transportation to go to work and the female participants who choose public
transportation to go to work.
The results of the test are provided below;
Inputs
Sample 1 Sample 2
Sample Proportion 0.64 0.76
Sample size 55 45
Significance level 0.05
1- or 2-tailed test 2-tailed
Results
Sample 1 Sample 2 Difference
Sample proportion 0.64 0.76 0.12

95% CI (asymptotic) 0.5131 - 0.7669 0.6352 - 0.8848 -0.0616 - 0.3016
z-value 1.3
P-value 0.1952
Interpretation
Not significant,
accept null hypothesis that
sample proportions are equal
n by pi n * pi >5, test ok
CI plot
As can be seen, the p-value is greater than 5% level of significance thus we fail to reject the null
hypothesis and conclude that there is no significant difference in the proportion of male
participants who choose public transportation to go to work and the female participants who
choose public transportation to go to work.

Conclusion and Implication
Several factors were found to influence the travelers choice on using public transport. A sample
size used for the study was 100 participants living in Sydney. Among the factors were the cost,
efficiency, comfortability and time saving. The study established that these factors had different
weights in influencing the use of transport to work. Cost was found to have a higher weight
towards the use of public transport followed by efficiency, time saving and comfortability in that
order. We also established that there is no significant difference in the proportion of male
participants who choose public transportation to go to work and the female participants who
choose public transportation to go to work.
Appendix
Datasets
Gende
r
Age Transpor
t
Public
transport
Time1 Time2 Age

1 36 1 1 29 23 36
1 33 1 1 30 15 33
2 39 1 1 36 19 39
1 44 2 1 25 29 44
2 46 1 1 31 16 46
1 48 2 3 22 33 48
2 60 1 1 21 19 60
1 34 1 3 37 19 34
1 30 1 1 28 34 30
1 58 2 1 29 33 58
1 47 1 2 20 35 47
1 44 1 1 39 30 44
1 48 1 4 36 18 48
2 59 1 1 21 15 59
1 52 1 3 33 27 52
1 44 1 1 36 28 44
1 51 1 1 36 17 51
2 47 2 1 41 23 47
1 55 1 1 23 23 55
1 58 1 2 45 27 58
2 34 1 3 35 22 34
1 28 2 2 37 21 28
1 36 2 2 28 17 36
1 63 1 1 22 24 63
2 31 1 1 42 21 31
1 43 2 2 20 35 43
2 36 1 4 45 18 36
1 57 2 2 40 22 57
1 60 2 1 26 24 60
2 43 1 3 25 23 43
1 28 2 4 37 22 28
2 45 1 1 35 15 45
2 31 1 3 32 35 31
2 39 1 1 28 33 39
2 41 1 4 40 26 41
2 59 2 3 25 22 59
1 37 2 2 44 22 37
1 60 1 3 31 23 60
1 48 2 4 42 17 48
2 37 1 2 39 23 37
2 57 1 2 21 27 57

2 28 1 3 36 23 28
2 48 1 2 30 20 48
1 65 2 3 37 28 65
2 47 1 2 41 25 47
2 61 1 4 40 22 61
2 56 2 2 42 23 56
1 54 2 4 37 15 54
2 40 1 1 35 17 40
1 43 2 4 26 18 43
1 49 1 1 38 17 49
2 60 1 1 32 22 60
1 41 2 4 45 17 41
2 57 1 4 41 29 57
2 52 1 1 24 29 52
2 54 2 1 34 18 54
1 26 1 2 30 30 26
2 45 2 1 29 18 45
1 59 1 2 28 21 59
1 52 2 1 42 30 52
2 25 2 1 23 20 25
2 56 1 1 29 26 56
2 36 1 4 45 25 36
1 50 1 1 39 17 50
1 65 2 2 31 20 65
1 26 1 4 39 26 26
1 41 1 1 35 15 41
2 45 2 1 23 31 45
2 33 1 4 39 29 33
1 43 1 1 37 25 43
1 48 1 4 30 35 48
1 63 1 1 32 29 63
2 26 1 3 34 32 26
1 44 1 3 38 15 44
2 36 2 4 44 21 36
2 62 1 1 36 20 62
1 46 1 3 39 30 46
2 62 2 1 37 19 62
1 45 2 2 30 15 45
2 32 1 4 30 29 32
1 40 1 3 33 32 40
2 38 1 2 33 26 38
1 61 1 3 22 30 61
1 40 1 1 20 21 40

1 34 1 1 34 26 34
2 36 1 1 22 24 36
2 48 1 2 28 15 48
2 34 2 2 29 19 34
1 63 1 3 32 26 63
1 63 1 2 29 31 63
1 25 2 4 40 23 25
1 31 1 1 33 34 31
1 47 1 4 41 28 47
1 36 2 4 31 19 36
2 44 2 2 26 26 44
1 55 1 1 45 34 55
2 28 1 2 27 26 28
1 37 1 1 25 24 37
2 58 1 4 42 31 58
2 51 1 2 20 30 51