Evaluation of Road Users’ Satisfaction of George Walker Bush Highway, Ghana.
Abstract
The road infrastructure network in Ghana has received a massive growth over the years. Despite the efforts by the Government of Ghana to improve road infrastructure and services, road related problems still occur every now and then. There is growing recognition, of the need to understand road user needs and concerns to deliver quality road services effectively and efficiently. The statement of the problem gives an indication that there are road users’ satisfaction challenges on the George Walker Bush Highway in spite of the huge project investment made by the Government of Ghana and the Millennium Challenge Cooperation. Thus, the aim of the research is to evaluate the level of satisfaction of road users with the George Walker Bush (GWB) Highway. Questionnaire surveys was conducted on motorists and pedestrians. The views of both motorists and pedestrians with respect to the technical and functional service quality dimensions were assessed with a modified SERVQUAL instrument. Several implications regarding the satisfaction of road users of the GWB-highway were drawn from the findings of the research. The scores for all the quality dimensions measured indicated negative gaps which imply the expectations of road users of the GWB-highway exceeded their initial perceptions with the quality dimensions. The overall satisfaction rates show that pedestrians were averagely more satisfied with the service dimensions measured than motorists with an average mean scores of 3.87 and 2.94 respectively. The results of the regression analysis, show that road surface conditions and pedestrians’ safety are the significant service quality dimensions that influence the satisfaction of road users. The findings of this study have empirically affirmed that, the service quality dimensions that influence the satisfaction of road users cannot be ignored or underrated in road infrastructure delivery. It further informs the road agencies and operators of the need to give due attention to satisfaction of road users during design and construction stages.
Keywords: road users’ satisfaction, road agencies, road infrastructure, service quality dimensions.
Description
A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Building Technology, College of Art and Built Environment in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy.