Public transport has a major impact on residents’ overall satisfaction with the city they live in, according to the European Commission’s report on quality of life in European cities.
The Quality of Life in European Cities survey, which gathered responses from more than 71,000 people in 83 European cities, found that by 2023, around seven in ten residents will be generally satisfied with public transport in their city.
Gap
However, there is a huge gap in satisfaction levels with public transport in European capitals and cities.
Among capital cities, satisfaction varies from 29% in Rome and Tirana to 91% in Vienna. This difference is even greater between cities, with rates ranging from 22% in Palermo, Italy, to 95% in Zurich, Switzerland.
Looking at capital cities, there is a geographical trend where cities in Northern and Western Europe report higher satisfaction with public transport, while cities in Southern and Eastern Europe report lower satisfaction rates. For example, satisfaction with public transport exceeded 85% in three Nordic capitals – Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm – followed by Copenhagen with 81% satisfaction. The Icelandic capital Reykjavik is an exception, with a lower satisfaction rate of 56% in this area.
More than half of residents in six capitals were dissatisfied with public transport services. These cities include Rome, Tirana, Podgorica, Belgrade, Nicosia and Skopje.
Despite the geographical trend, some neighbouring countries show significant contrasts. For example, the highest (Vienna, 91%) and lowest (Rome, 29%) satisfaction levels are recorded in the capitals of Austria and Italy, respectively.
The factors
Several factors can influence satisfaction with public transport.
The survey asked residents to express their perceptions of whether they agreed or disagreed that public transportation is affordable, safe, easy to access, frequent (comes often) and reliable (arrives on time).
The percentage of residents who agreed that public transport is accessible in their city varied significantly between capital cities, ranging from 48% in Riga to 93% in Tallinn.
Perceived accessibility rates were relatively low in Nordic cities such as Oslo, Helsinki and Stockholm, despite these capitals having high overall levels of satisfaction with public transport.
The rankings are not based on actual rate comparisons, but reflect the perceptions of residents in their cities.
Perceptions of accessibility also vary across Europe’s five largest economies, ranging from 62% in London to 81% in Berlin. Almost two-thirds of Parisians (66%) consider public transport to be accessible.
The lowest satisfaction rates
For the most part, residents of capital cities tend to have a greater perception of safety when it comes to public transport.
However, in Rome, less than half of residents (45%) consider public transport to be safe. With the exception of Ankara, the capitals of the EU candidate countries also reported a lower perception of safety.
In Paris, only seven in ten residents (71%) believe that public transport is safe.
Rome recorded the lowest scores in four key indicators: safety, ease of access, frequency and reliability.
With few exceptions, capitals of EU candidate countries also tend to have lower scores on all these indicators.
Capitals vs other cities
Satisfaction levels with public transport were slightly higher in non-capital cities (73%) compared to European capitals (69%).
According to the ‘Quality of Life Report on European Cities, 2023’, nine of the 10 worst performing cities in terms of satisfaction with public transport are located in the Southern Member States and the Western Balkans, where satisfaction levels were 59% and 39% respectively.
Turkey also reported a similarly low score of 59%.
Differences within the same country
Satisfaction levels also vary between cities in the same country. For example, 67% of residents in Paris and Marseille were satisfied with public transport, while this figure was 84% in Lille and 87% in Strasbourg.
The difference is most striking in Cluj-Napoca (83%) and Bucharest (54%) in Romania.
Source: Euronews