The contributions of public transport to the perception of the quality of life in cities. A city marketing approach

Abstract

City Marketing has been shown to be a good tool of city management, which has allowed the improvement of the competitive position of cities. Amongst the strategies developed by cities, differentiation strategies based on quality of life in the city stand out due to their success. Many authors identify the improvement of quality of life with the attainment of better economic, social and environmental indicators; but sometimes the citizens do not perceive the improvements in these dimensions as an improvement of the quality of life. Whatsmore, it must be noted that the analyzed literature suggests that public transport is an element that conditions quality of life, due to its influence in economic, social and environmental aspects. This study centers in one respect, in proposing those factors, which allow the analysis of the perception of the citizens about the economic, social, environmental, and accessibility improvements as a consequence of investments in public transport. In another respect, this study analyses the existence of a positive effect between these factors and quality of life attributed to public transport. The results conclude that citizens appreciate better the quality of life, when they perceive the improvements in the proposed constructs. Thus, it can be concluded that those factors could be used in the planning and control of the strategies of the city, as they increased the value offered by the city to its targets.