Analysis on Public’s Response Toward Bus Reform Policy in IndonesiaConsidering Latent Variables

Background:Public Transport (PT) is commonly recognized as a valid transport policy to reduce car and motorcycle users in many developing countries. Inemerging countries such as Indonesia, a city like Banda Aceh has not been away from the influences of impecunious public transportation servicessuch as insufficient quality of services. The need for public transport reforms in achieving efficiency and sufficiency is under consideration by theGovernment as a way to mitigate severe private mode dependency. Therefore, Stated Preference (SP) survey was conducted in Banda Aceh,Indonesia, where the so-called bus reform policy Trans Koetaradja runs under trial as a case study. This investigation evaluated Banda Acehcitizens’ intentions to Trans Koetaradja bus reform policy in terms of the public approval. Methods:The questionnaires were distributed to the public within three lines of Trans Koetaradja. Utilizing psychometric data collected from SP survey, weconstructed four factors representing psychological determinants (i.e., appropriateness of the policy, private mode dependency, the consciousnessof problem private mode in society, and inhibition of freedom of movements). Due to the characteristics of the methods for evaluating public’intentions, we retain that this kind of unobserved variable analysis could be accomplished by applying multivariate latent variable modeling. Aims:This work aims to propose a Structural Equation Modeling of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (SEM-CFA) for analyzing the effects of citizensintents related to an individuals’ indicators of the psychological factors that might abridge the judgments about numerous characteristics towardsthe bus reform policy.Results:The empirical findings show that some latent factors offer explanatory power for bus reform policy acceptance. Latent variables, including“perceived appropriateness of the policy” and “awareness of problem private mode in society” appear to be the most significant direct causesleading to the acknowledgment of the effect of the acceptance of the proposed policy. Conclusion:However, the effect of latent variables of “private mode dependency” and “inhibition of freedom of movement/less accessibility of the bus” revealsnegative determinants to the acceptance of the policy.