Transit-Oriented Development: Exploring Citizen Perceptions in a Booming City, Can Tho City, Vietnam

Abstract

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a crucial method for sustainable urban development and encouraging the use of public transit, especially for large densely populated cities such as Can Tho City, one of the top five cities in Vietnam. This study is aimed at identifying the factors which have a significant effect on the citizens’ engagement of public transport in the TOD environment. Based on the literature review and expert knowledge, 3 hypotheses related to citizens’ perceptions and citizen’s engagement are developed. A questionnaire was accordingly established using structural equation modeling (SEM). As a result, a total of 8 factors with 31 stems were obtained. The survey questionnaires were distributed to citizens of Can Tho City with 749 responses collected for KMO test Chi-square of 0.905. The analysis shows that all three hypotheses stand: (1) the citizens’ perception of local government’s capacity plays an important role in the citizens’ willingness to engage on public transport; the citizens’ perception of the usefulness of (2) TOD and (3) public transport has a positive influence on the engagement on public transport system. The major contribution of this study is that it can help other cities in developing countries to apply TOD.