Quality of life in Medan city is Low

In developed countries, public transport is one of the main crucial factors in society. This aspect is considered essential because it supports directly to the citizens’ activities. Interestingly, the public transport also affects the way the economy growth as the goods are transported to many places. On the other hand, the mobilization of people for working also gives significant impact too. Does it mean the human development index is also influenced by the public transport?

"Angkot" is the term to explain one of the main public transport in Medan
(Image is credited from http://www.medanbisnisdaily.com)

Medan is the capital city of North Sumatera province and it is used to be one of the destination for people who looked for job. It was famous with the name of “dollar city” because of the petroleum refinery located in Pangkalan Brandan. At that time, Medan had improved their transportation system either land, air and the sea. But, today the quality of transportation system can be considered as one of the worst in Indonesia. Research conducted by researchers in Medan indicated that the services which is provided by the transportation industries in Medan were low (Putra & Sitanggang, 2016).

The researchers employed six parameters of quality of services which are indicators insurance, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, tangible and comfort. As we know today, Medan is the third/ fourth largest cities in Indonesia and it currently has been expanding the area larger than previous. In this year, the local government has started construction of railway transport to prevent the traffic created by the land vehicles. This implies the lateness in transport facilities.

According to the paper, the public transportation system – the quality of the service – can be measured by looking those six aspects. 400 participants were employed to be asked about their perspective and expectations about the services.

Public transportation in Medan

Illustration of seats in "Angkot"
(Image is credited from www.eengsu.wordpress.com)

Nowadays, public transportation in the city utilized by the citizen is mainly the four-wheel car with 7 seaters which is modified into vertical seater in the both sides, located behind the driver seat. The car which has been used is similar to All Purpose Vehicle (APV) or sometimes people see it as minibus. On the other hand, this vehicle also does not have any air conditioner (AC) tools which can make unstable temperature within the car. Subsequently, the passengers could be transported are sixteen people. However, the main problem in this car is the space between the passenger which is too small.

The drivers of the public transportation in Medan is also far beyond the expectations. Mostly they are skilled drivers without concerning the aspect of services. For instance, people will find the drivers smoking during the driving from one place to another places. It can be stated that the professionalism of the drivers is far beyond that we expected in terms of safety and comfort aspects. With the insurance regulation covered by the government which explains about the responsibility of for the liability is less useful as the drivers can do smoking during the driving.

Although the quality of common public transportation is low, the local government has improved the system by allocating Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) for several areas. The new busses are called as “Trans Mebidang” which transport people with long range of kilometers. However, this new transportation meets essential issue which is the bus stations are not being constructed yet.

The Assessments of public transportation in Medan

All of the six dimensions which is used to measure the quality service of public transport in Medan resulted high gap between the expectations and perceptions of the respondents. The perception of respondents was between 1.50 (public transport using AC) to 3.37 (seating availability). Whilst the average expectation in each dimensions which insurance, empathy, reliability, responsive, tangible and comfort are 4.08; 3.80; 4.07; 3.90; 4.07; 4.11 respectively. Based on the analysis conducted by the researchers stated that if the perception of the participants is lower than expected means there are no services actually.

To be concluded that the public transportation services are beyond the low level of quality. We could say averagely that the public transportation system in Medan does not provide any kind of services. The researchers also suggested that when public transport system is not good, then the process of transporting people will influence the emotional aspect of the passengers such as happiness and comfortable. Technically speaking, the quality of life among people in Medan is low.

References

[1] Putra, K. E. & Sitanggang, J. M., 2016. The effect of public transport services on quality of life in Medan city. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Issue 234, pp. 383 - 389.
[2] Image is downloaded from https://eengsu.files.wordpress.com
[3] Image is downloaded from http://www.medanbisnisdaily.com