Proposing a TOPSIS-based Method for Assessing the Quality of Public Transportation Services

This study is concerned with proposing a method for assessing the quality of public transportation services. The purpose of the study is to provide a solution for comparing the quality of public transportation services in several units such as various bus service lines in a particular city or a district, and rank them for subsequent decision-making. To perform the comparison, 6 general factors are taken into account including accessibility, travel time, reliability, direct transport services, alternativeness of the service, and travel density. Based on the factors in question, 15 indices were proposed to represents the quality level of services. Then, the indices are modeled according to the Multiple-Attribute Decision-Making (MADM), and based on the TOPSIS method, different parameters are ranked and evaluated according to the service quality factors.