Public transit authorities have enhanced the travel experience to promote ridership and customer loyalty. Previous studies about satisfaction and loyalty of transit riders, however, give less attention to out-of-vehicle environments such as walking/biking routes, transfer comfort, and traffic and crime safety conditions. The first-mile and last-mile problem—distance traveled before and after using transit—is a well-known barrier of transit use, but an empirical study about how people experience it is lacking.

Thus, this study aims to explore how transit riders experience out-of-vehicle environments—access, transfer, and egress—and how their experience is related to overall satisfaction and loyalty to transit service. We conducted a questionnaire survey of people (n = 445) living in areas served by the Utah Transit Authority and analyzed the responses through an Importance-Satisfaction analysis and a path analysis, a type of structural equation modeling. A descriptive analysis demonstrates complex first-mile travel patterns: driving is the most common mode to start a transit-involved trip (68.5%), and one-third of transit riders transfer more than once before riding on a transit (e.g., driving → walking → transit). Results from the Importance-Satisfaction analysis highlight both traffic and crime safety concerns at transit stops and walking routes as a critical out-of-vehicle element most in need of improvement. A path analysis result confirms that out-of-vehicle environments—in particular, safety and transfer experience—influence customer satisfaction and loyalty more than in-vehicle and system-related factors do. This paper concludes with practical suggestions for multiple agencies (e.g., public transit, transportation, and urban planning), including urban design strategies, land use-transit integration, and multi-modal integration.

公共交通当局已经提升了旅行体验，以提高乘客人数和客户忠诚度。然而，之前关于公交乘客满意度和忠诚度的研究较少关注步行/自行车路线、换乘舒适度以及交通和犯罪安全条件等车外环境。第一英里和最后一英里问题——使用公交前后的距离——是众所周知的公交使用障碍，但缺乏关于人们如何体验它的实证研究。

因此，本研究旨在探索公交乘客如何体验车外环境——进入、换乘和离开——以及他们的体验如何与总体满意度和对公交服务的忠诚度相关。我们对人进行了问卷调查（n = 445) 居住在犹他州交通管理局服务的地区，并通过重要性-满意度分析和路径分析（一种结构方程模型）分析响应。描述性分析显示了复杂的第一英里出行模式：驾车是开始涉及公交的旅行的最常见模式 (68.5%)，三分之一的公交乘客在乘坐公交之前多次转乘（例如，开车 →步行→过境）。重要性-满意度分析的结果强调了交通站点和步行路线的交通和犯罪安全问题，这是最需要改进的关键车外要素。路径分析结果证实了车外环境——尤其是，安全和转移体验——比车内和系统相关因素更能影响客户满意度和忠诚度。本文最后为多个机构（例如，公共交通、交通和城市规划）提供了实用建议，包括城市设计策略、土地使用-交通整合和多模式整合。