Passengerduen

Passengerduen is a term used in transportation planning and mobility studies to describe the integrated experience and behavior of a transit user across multiple modes. It refers to how passengers assess and respond to service reliability, information quality, comfort, accessibility, and convenience when planning and executing a trip.

Origin and usage: The term is a neologism that emerged in the 2020s in discussions of passenger-centric networks and has no single author or standard definition. It is used primarily in analytical or speculative literature to frame passenger experience as a network quality rather than a collection of isolated service attributes.

Key components: Real-time information accuracy; timetable reliability; ease of transfers; network coverage; physical comfort and safety; pricing and accessibility; and the presence of user-friendly digital tools that coordinate door-to-door trips across modes.

Applications: As a qualitative descriptor, passengerduen guides transit app design, service planning, and policy evaluation. Some researchers propose a composite passengerduen index that blends reliability, accessibility, and information quality to compare networks or simulate improvements.

Criticism and limits: Because passengerduen is not standardized, measurements can be subjective and context-dependent. Critics caution against overvaluing user experience without addressing structural constraints or equity considerations. Privacy and data security are also concerns when using digital tools to gauge the concept.

See also: Travel behavior, public transport usability, multimodal transportation, passenger information systems.