An analysis of commuter travel time for Gozitan workers in Malta

Abstract

This research investigates inter-island commuting behaviour and travel time. It specifically studies gozitan commuters who travel regularly between Gozo and Malta. By comprehending the current situation and studying the performance of existing transport modes one can recognize some attainable recommendations to ameliorate the commute between the island of Malta and Gozo. Primary data was collected through an online questionnaire which was distributed to 350 participants. The analysis of the quantitative data comprised of statistical tests using the program SPSS. Secondary data was collected from different sources, such as, journals, research papers and reports, together with data from the National Statistics Office. The main findings of this research are that Gozitan commuters are classified as extreme commuters while the most popular mode of transport is that of the private car. There is also a relationship between gender and the average travel time of the commuters, which revealed that females have longer commutes than their male counterparts. Another interesting result indicates that travel time activities are affected by the education level of the commuter. The commuters who were investigated, selected the ‘average’ score for all the characteristics of the ferry and those regular commuters using the Gozo ferry classified ‘comfort and cleanliness’ and ‘security’ as their best service quality indicator, whilst less regular ferry commuters classified ‘availability of service’ and ‘information’ as their best service quality indicator. The latest addition of the fourth ferry seems to have had very positive results with the sample of commuters. As regards to the tunnel the sample of Gozitan commuters were against the idea of such an infrastructure. This contrasted with the replies that concerned the introduction of the fast ferry, where the majority of the sample of commuters were in favour of it. Travel time reduction was also a major theme in the semi-structured interviews conducted with the two policy makers. Results from these interviews indicated that with the building of the proposed tunnel travel time would only be reduced slightly, since traffic congestion would still be present. Nevertheless, it remained the most attractive option for a fixed link between the islands.