Article in Journal of Sustainability Science and Management · April 019 citations 11 reads 1,581 authors: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects

Materials and Methods 
Selection of Factors Undermining Public 
Transport Utilization in Dammam 
 
Factors that undermine the utilization of any 
mode of public transport are those that influence 
the passenger’s perception about the services 
rendered by the public transport sector. Thus, 
in this study, the selection of factors was 
determined through literature review and a pilot 
study. 
For example, Cascetta & Cartenì (2014) 
and Kim et al. (2017) argued that long travel 
time, high monetary cost, poor accessibility, 
and discomfort could undermine the quality of 
service. . Similarly, Aljoufie (2016) reported that 
privacy; especially in the Saudi Arabian 
context, 
was 
a 
major 
factor 
in 
the 
underutilization of public transport. The factors 
analyzed in this study were travel time; cost, 
weather conditions, 
privacy, accessibility, and comfort. There are 
many other factors responsible in undermining 
public transport utilization, but the factors in this 
study were the most applicable in Dammam. A 
pilot survey had confirmed this assertion. 
Expert-based Questionnaire Administration 
 
The AHP expert-based questionnaire was 
adopted from Saaty’s scale of preference (Saaty, 
2003). An introduction containing the aim of the 
research clearly explained how to respond to 
the questions. Questions that allowed the pair- 
wise comparisons to take place were posed to 
respondents in the following manner: “Which 
factor is more important in undermining the 
utilization of public transportation in the study 
area, for example, travel time, privacy, comfort, 
travel cost, and or accessibility; and how much 
times important?” 

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Journal of Sustainability Science and Management 
Volume 14 Number 2, April 2019 : 157-171 
162 
ISSUES UNDERMINING PUBLIC TRANSPORT UTILIZATION IN 
DAMMAM CITY, SAUDI ARABIA: AN EXPERT-BASED ANALYSIS 
A pilot survey was conducted to correct 
ambiguities, such as checking wordings to 
ensure that respondents understood the questions 
within the context. According to Bell (2001c), 
a pilot study was about “getting the bugs out 
of the instruments” (questionnaire) so that the 
respondents would not face trouble completing 
the questionnaire. Moreover, the pilot survey 
enabledrespondents to understandthe factors and 
their implications of each other in undermining 
public transport utilization. Impacts of these 
factors were further explained to promote good 
understanding of the subject. Twelve faculty 
members from Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal 
University and King Fahad University of 
Petroleum and Minerals were involved in the 
pilot study. Their suggestions and criticisms 
really helped in confirming the factors identified 
in the course of the literature review and in 
finalizing the final version of the instrument. 
After multiple revisions of the questionnaire, 
eight copies of the final version were distributed 
among the experts to obtain their relative 
preference ranking of the factors; and therefore, 
the respondents had responded in an informed 
and competent manner. A number of experts 
were considered to avoid bias in the calculation 
of the experts’ judgment (Ishizaka and Labib, 
2011); otherwise, according to Saaty and Sagir 
(2009), the view from a single expert would 
have been sufficient. One way of achieving 
objectivity was the use of questionnaire and 
group consultations for weighting (Hossain et 
al., 2009; Saaty and Sagir, 2009; Ishizaka and 
Labib, 2011). 
A validity test of the instrument was 
conducted among the experts utilized in the 
main survey. Ozdemir (2005) emphasize that
in validating AHP instrument, there was a need 
to establish redundancy of the informed 
judgments generated from the experts to 
improve validity. This was by establishing a 
larger number of comparisons to generate 
larger inconsistency. Thus, the pair-wise 
comparisons employed in this study helped in 
establishing the redundancy. For example, when 
making 
judgments, 
automatically, 
the 
reciprocal judgment and 
measure of inconsistency took the inconsistency 
of both pair of elements into account. Therefore, 
for the benefit of efficiency, trade-off between 
consistency and redundancy was made to obtain 
the validity of the instrument. 
After using the pair-wise comparisons to 
rank the factors undermining public transport 
utilization, a reliability test was carried out to 
ascertain how reliable the AHP method was. 
Although questionnaires among the widely 
used techniques of data collection, they are, 
likewise, prone to errors, which could be 
systematic or random (De Vaus,2002). De Vaus 
(2002) stressed that when a number of 
elements were evaluated, the best technique to 
adopt was the internal consistency approach as 
it was free from the issues of the test–retest 
technique. Therefore, in this study, a consistency 
ratio (CR) was used in testing the reliability of 
the method. CR of 0.10 or less was acceptable to 
continue the AHP analysis, while a CR greater 
than 0.10 was not, and therefore the analysis 
would be revised (Saaty, 2012). 
In 
revising 
the 
analysis 
to 
remove 
inconsistency, a new judgment was introduced 
to an existing consistency or near consistency to 
identify which judgment ought to be changed. 
The judgments were changed based on our 
knowledge and reasoning (Ozdemir, 2005). 
In the main survey, the experts were 
consulted through different platforms, including 
the 2017 Fourth Traffic Safety Forum and 
Exhibition and the Traffic Safety Department of 
the Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, 
both in Dammam. Among them, five were 
faculty members from Imam Abdulrahman Bin 
Faisal University and King Fahad University 
of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia. 
The other three experts were two senior 
research officers working in the Traffic Safety 
Cluster of the Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal 
University and a senior officer of SAPTCO, 
Dammam branch. These experts were involved 
in urban transport research, including in an 
intelligent public transport system in the city. 
Against this backdrop, it was assumed that the 

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Journal of Sustainability Science and Management 
Volume 14 Number 2, April 2019 : 157-171 
Umar Lawal Dano and Ali Muflah Alqathany 
163 
1 
2 
3 
N 
abovementioned experts had wider experience 
and that they were competent in providing 
meaningful and unbiased information. Thus, 
these characteristics allowed for an intimate 
first-hand knowledge, expertise, and experience 
of the subject matter. 
The respondents were requested, based on 
their expertise and experience, to respond in 
accordance with the pair-wise comparison of the 
factors. They were expected to tick the degree 
of importance of each of the identified factors 
believed to be responsible for undermining 
public transport utilization, provision and 
development in Dammam on a one to nine scale 
of preference (Table 2). 
Table 2: Saaty’s Scale of Preference (Source: Saaty, 2003) 
Degree of importance 
Definition 
Interpretation 
1 
Equal importance 
Two element making equal contribution to the 
goal 
3 
Somewhat more important 
Moderate importance of element over the other 
element 
5 
Much more important 
Essential or strong importance 
7 
Very much important 
Very strong importance 
9 
Extremely important 
Extreme importance 
Scale, 2.4, 6 and 8 
Intermediate values 
These are require when comparison between 
two adjacent judgment is needed 
Reciprocals 
If v is the judgment value when i is compared to j, then 1/v is the judgment 
value when j is compared to i. 
The respondent’s priority ratings were 
aggregated using the geometric mean technique 
as presented in equation (1). 
Geometric means = 
((X ) (X ) (X ).... (X ))
1/N 
(1) 
where, 
X = individual ranking and N = sample size 
(number of scores). The priority ratings assigned 
by the experts assisted in the execution of the 
pair-wise comparisons matrix.