Transportation marketing :a study of attitude and preference of Saudi families towards school transport in Saudi Arabia, a case study of Dammam City

Abstract

Education is an important factor in the development and growth of a country. It is essential to have school transport to facilitate the transport of male and female students to school so that the families will be persuaded to send their children to schools, and the children are encouraged to continue education. The school transport modes are of different kinds: students can walk to the schools; families may own private cars; transport may be rented or may be provided by the government, such as school buses. The focus of this research is to identify the modes which are used to transport the students to and from schools, problems associated with such modes of transport, and the modes preferred by the Saudi households. The research also concentrates on identifying the constraints preventing the selection of preferred modes, and investigates the relation between the sociocultural factors and the selection of the modes in order to develop a Modal Split Model. A review of previous studies reveals that comfortability, convenience, time, safety, and costs, are the factors that play important roles in the selection of the transport modes. In the light of these factors, the school transport modes in the city of Dammam, Saudi Arabia are evaluated. Data were collected from a sample of 1081 male and 1084 female students, as well as from their guardians. An analysis of the data shows that students use the following modes for school transport at varying rates depending on the educational level: Walking, Private Car, Carpool, Limousine/Taxi, Government School Bus, and Public Bus, while the preferred modes are: Walking, Private Car, Government School Bus, and Rented (Public) Bus. Eleven modal split models for school trips have been chosen from 161 models as the best models for predicting school trips in terms of rho-squared (P 2)" As a result of the descriptive analysis and the modal split models, market demand and market share of the school transport modes are analyzed, and applications of how to use the models are shown in the benefit of the Saudi' households and the private companies.