Measuring Perceived Service Quality in Highway Maintenance

摘要

The concept of involving the public in the development of transportation solutions was built intothe Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, the legislation that authorized the construction of theInterstate Highway System. Better plans, transparent process, and public support are some of thebenefits that road managers can obtain by educating and involving the general public. During thelast two decades the volume of research performed related to the topic of customer-drivenhighway maintenance suggests an increasing level of interest in the field. Most researchconcentrates on gathering information from road users to assess the performance level ofhighways. However, public opinion can also be collected for measuring the quality of the servicedelivered by maintenance units. Assessing product and service delivery performance is importantfor determining the overall performance of highway maintenance programs. The present studyexamines the relationship between road users' overall perceptions of the quality of highwaymaintenance services and the variables that define the highway maintenance service qualitydomain. The results of the study indicate that two service dimensions, Safety and Reliability,explain about half of the variance in overall perceptions of highway maintenance service quality.The procedures developed for the study provide an initial step for further improvement of thehighway maintenance perceived service quality measurement.