RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SATISFACTION LEVELS OF COMMUTING TO

WORK VIA PUBLIC TRANSPORT TOWARDS PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS

Noor Alifah Ahmad Izhar
Faculty of Education and Social Science,
University Selangor, Malaysia

Corresponding author: alifah.izhar@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between satisfaction levels of commuting
to work via public transport towards psychological stress. Whereas there are three dimension
of psychological stress which are stress, anxiety and depression based on Depression, Anxiety,
Stress Scale (DASS). The dimension are to find out the relationship between commuting
satisfaction levels among employees in Klang Valley. A set of questionnaire with 38 questions
are distributed to respondent in targeted area such as KTMB, MRT and bus station in Sungai
Buloh, Rawang and Kuala Lumpur. A total 400 set of questionnaire have been distributed
through manual and online. Only 192 questionnaire are acceptable to proceed this research.
The data were analysed by using Pearson Correlation. Results state that commuting
satisfaction has a weak positive relationship with stress, anxiety and depression level of
commuters in Klang Valley. Majority of respondent do satisfy with the quality of public
transport in Klang Valley and satisfaction not affecting the stress level of an individual life.
Therefore, public transport commuters in Klang Valley do satisfy with the quality of services
provided and the commuting activity does not act as a stressor except for the long hours
commuting time.
Keywords: public transport commuting, satisfaction, stress, anxiety, depression, quality, public
transport
INTRODUCTION Before that, in April 2017, Malaysia is
In July 2017, we have seen another ranked 11th among 138 nations in the latest
transformation in the industry of public World Economic Forum (WEF) Global
transport in Malaysia. Prime Minister, Dato Competitive Index 2016-2017 ranking on
Seri Najib bin Abdul Razak launched the transportation (Malaysian Digest, 2017).
Mass Rail Transit (MRT). It is believe that Regarding to this accomplishment, Prime
this extension of another kind public Minister said this ranking star is a
transport in a greater city, Kuala Lumpur, it recognition of the quality of Malaysia’s
well helps society to reduce stress and transportation infrastructure compared
transportation costs as this MRT rail do within countries in Southeast Asia. Along
connected to KL Sentral which offers more with this WEF report, it shows that
connectivity with LRT, Monorail, KTM, Malaysia commuters spend about USD 12
Express Rail Link and feeder busses in the per day on commuting as opposed to
area. This 51km rail are able to fetch about Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines where
150 000 passengers daily (New Straits commuting might cost up to USD 20 per
Times, 2017). day (World Economic Forum, 2017). This
 prove that Malaysia do concern on the
improvement of transportation
infrastructure that all Malaysian should be
thankful instead of complaining.
It is believe that ones who commuting
with public transport to work in Klang Valley
are able to save more compare to those who
commute with their own car, especially if one
factors of ownership, insurance, road tax,
maintanence and related expanses such as
parking, fuel, tolls and facing unproductive
hours stucks in traffic jammed. However,
does this savings technique are really worth
in the aspect of stress level? It might be
assume that peoples who drive may face
great stress being stuck in a traffic jammed,
which return the question, does commuters
not facing commuting stress being stuck with
strangers while chasing hours to arrived
home on time?.
Problem Statement
The problem statement for this research is
“Does satisfaction levels of commuting to
work via public transports impacts
psychological stress of an employee?” It is
because peoples may assume that using
public transport are more relaxing
especially using train where they not face
the traffic jam to go and fro to the work
daily, this employees are able to have “my
me time” doing what they like to do and
more relaxed compare to those who
commute by their own car.
However, it is acknowledge that
commuting by using public transport are
always spend long time to be compared
with those who drive their own car. For
example, if they miss the schedule of the
transport, they may need to wait for another
15-40 minutes for the next transport. Does
this longer time spend on commuting are
not affecting their psychological stress?
Besides, commuting by using public
transport are more likely to be choose
because it is more save in the aspect of cost
to be compare to commute by private
transport. This is because, for having an
automobile or motorcycle, ones should
consider the costs of ownership, insurance,
road tax, maintenance and related expenses
such as parking, fuels and tolls. For a highly
urban area like Klang Valley and greater
city of Kuala Lumpur, these costs may
affect the living expenses for employees. It
may highly impact the low income family.
However, the question is, does this saving
technique is practical? Does it worth in the
aspect of psychological stress? They might
not have to experience the traffic jammed,
but still they are more likely to spend more
time inside the public transport.
Office for National Statistic (2014) had
made a research on “how the daily
commute to work is likely to be
experienced as a total package”. This study
combined the travel time and mode. The
travel time are divided by two category
which is short time for 16 to 30 minutes and
longer for more than 30 minutes. The mode
of transport also divided into two category
which is private and alternative such as bus
and train. This study found that those who
experiences long bus journey to work of
more than 30 minutes had lower life
satisfaction, while those who long commute
by train had higher anxiety levels on
average and those who travel to work in
private transport had lower levels of
happiness and higher anxiety levels on
average for short and long commuting time.
By using the same impact indicator, this
study will define this phenomenon, with the
aspect of psychological stress in the busiest
city in Malaysia, which is Klang Valley.
However, the mode of vehicle would likely
changes to rail public transport (LRT,
KTMB, Monorail and MRT) to be compare
with road public transport (bus, taxi, Grab
or Uber service). This study may able to
catch up the right answer for this research
question properly and in a realistic ways.
Research Objectives
The main objectives of this study are to
identify:
1. To identify significant relationship
between satisfaction levels of
commuting to work via public
transports towards psychological
stress.
2. To identify significant relationship
between satisfactions levels of
commuting to work via public
transport towards stress level.
3. To identify significant relationship
between satisfaction levels of
commuting to work via public
transport towards anxiety level.
4. To identify significant relationship
between satisfactions levels of
commuting to work via public
transport towards depression level.
Hypothesis
H01: There is no significant relationship
between satisfaction levels towards public
transport commuting and psychological
stress among commuters.
H02: There is no significant relationship
between satisfaction levels of commuting to
work via public transport towards stress
level.
H03: There is no significant relationship
between satisfaction levels of commuting to
work via public transport towards anxiety
level.
H04: There is no significant relationship
between satisfactions levels of commuting
to work via public transport towards
depression levels
LITERATURE REVIEW
Mattisson (2016) define commuting as
everyday travel between home and work
independent of the distance, duration and
mode. Commuters used different modes of
travel such as private vehicle, public
vehicle or walking. Modes that require
physical activity are known as “active
commuting” such as walking or cycling.
While less required of physical activity are
known as “passive commuting”.
Oliver (2010) define satisfaction as
the consumer’s fulfilment response. It is
how consumers judge the product or service
features, the product or service itself and
the levels of consumption-related
fulfilment, either it is under or over
fulfilment. Wilson (2012) defined customer
satisfaction as the customer’s evaluation
needs and expectation in the aspect of the
quality, price, equity and fairness.
According to Simandan (2010) in
psychology, stress is a feeling of strain and
pressure or any unpleasant emotion and
feeling. Minimal stress may be desired,
beneficial and healthy for an individual for
example positive stress helps athlete to
improve performance and increase
competitive factor. Stress positively may
give motivation, adaptation and reaction to
some environment. However, excessive
stress may lead to harm, it can increase risk
of strokes, heart attacks, ulcers and mental
illness such as anxiety and depression.
The Sun Daily (2015) report that
Malaysian is considering on the rising cost
of living and its domino effect on particular
areas including removal of fuel
subsidiaries, tumbling currency and
political instability causes the rising of
living cost. Economy stability is important
for nation in order to sustain growth, it also
lead to financial stability for the country
among populations. However, the economy
crisis is an inevitable and happened among
the countries worldwide. The uncertain
economic will generate negative impacts
towards financial problems, for example,
peoples face rising of living cost due to the
economic downturn. Also, rising of living
cost means that there should be rising in
income earned so that people are able to live
in stable. But it is not happening in
Malaysia, as the cost are increasing, but the
payment rate as at static. This situation may
lead longer commuting to work for those
peoples who work inside the city but are
only capable to rent or buy a properties
outside of the city for living sake.
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn
Malaysia (2008) conducted the study of
“Urban Transportation: Issue and Solution”
in three urban areas such as Kajang,
Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur. The purpose
of this study is to identify several issues of
transportation mode (private and public) in
urban areas and its impact on quality of life.
Researcher collect data from 144
respondents, 61 males and 84 females from
the age of 18 to 57 years old in order to
evaluate their perception of transportation
mode correlated to the quality of life. The
research found that majority of urban areas
community highly prefer to commute by
their own private car with 45.8%,
motorcycle as a second choice with 25.4%
followed by buses, 16.7% and left the rest
of percentage for train and taxi. This study
also identified the impact of mode of
transportation towards community, the
impact of traffic jam is very critical which
is 88.8% in those areas which between >10-
15 minutes and >40-45 minutes per trip.
The psychological effect of peoples who
face traffic jam in urban areas include
tiredness, headache and stress. This study
recommend government to put higher
consideration for community in urban area
in the aspect of transportation development
in order to contribute higher quality of life.
Regarding low interest of
Malaysian to choose public transport as
their commuting mode, University Putra
Malaysia (2015) conduct a research to
study the confidence level of the youths in
the quality of public transport services in
Klang Valley (Greater KL). There are 445
youths from Klang Valley who were
frequent users of public transport are
chosen as a sample. It is found that Greater
KL youth have a moderate level of
confidence in the quality of the public
transport services. Through this research,
the prominent factor of this results are
found in the questions about safety.
Majority of respondent (56.8%) disagree to
the statement that station or waiting area of
public transport is safe, this shows high
level of safety concern is a main issues on
why Malaysian commuters preferred
private transport to be compared with
public transport. It is believe if Malaysian
government able to cater this safety issue,
more peoples will choose public transport
as their mode of commute.
Environmental Psychologist, Gary
W. Evans and Richard E. Wener
collaborate with Donald Phillips (2002)
conduct a study name The Morning Rush
Hour: Predictability and Commuter Stress.
Through the application of
multimethodological (self-report,
motivational behaviour and
psychophysiological) stress indicators to
test the hypothesis among population of
train passengers who commute from
suburban New Jersey to New York City. 56
train passengers has been recruited for this
study, with the conditions that each sample
had to commute to the city during morning
rush hour at least 4 days a week and done
so for at least 1 year. This study found that
the longer the commute timing by the train,
the greater the levels of stress experienced
by commuters. Where this relations were
manifested on standardizes perceives stress
scale and elevations. This study can
conclude that rail commuters similar to
automobile commuters experience stressful
commuting during morning rush hours.
The research named “Happiness
and Satisfaction with Work Commute”
(Olsson, Garling, Ettema, Friman and Fujii,
2012) were conducted in three urban areas
of Sweden. This research objective is to
define the relationship between satisfaction
of work commuters to overall happiness.
There was 713 work commuters consists of
41.7% of male respondent answered a mail
questionnaire that consist questions about
the work commute, overall happiness and
sociodemographic. The researcher use the
term “trip legs” in this research to indicate
the mode of travel by participants. For
instance, commute to work may have three
trip legs: walking to the garage at home;
driving the car to a parking lot in a
workplace and walking from parking lot to
the workplace. This classified as a car
commute. There are two other mode of
commute in this research which is public
transit and slow mode commute (walk of
bicycle). The work commutes were
classified as car commute if car was used
for at least one leg of the commute trip, and
at least one leg used for public transport
with no car used for any other leg either to
work or from work trip and slow mode
commuters where the commuters walked or
biked all legs.
Moreover, in this research the
commute time are divide into three
categories which is short commute time
(<20 minutes), medium-long commute time
(20-35 minutes) and long commute time
(>35 minutes). The composite measure of
satisfaction (STS) consist of 3 criteria of
question, quality of travel, positive
activation versus negative deactivation and
positive deactivation and negative
deactivation and Satisfaction with Life
Scale (SWLS). The results of this research
found that daily commute has a substantial
influence on overall happiness with a
balance on positive and negative effect. The
commute time (from 10 to 108 min) reduce
satisfaction with the work commute, slow
commute modes (Walking and biking)
results in more satisfaction than car and
public transit.
Office for National Statistic
(ONS) (2014) made a research on how
commuting affect personal wellbeing. The
study analysed personal wellbeing by using
4 measure which is life satisfaction, to what
extent the respondent felt the things they
did in life was worth, whether the
commuters were happy and whether they
were anxious. A drop in the first three and
high in anxiety indicates a negative effect
of respondent’s wellbeing. This study
compares two mode of commuting which is
private vehicle (car, minibus or work van)
and alternative vehicle (train, bus, walking
or cycling). The results shows that those
who commute to work by bus or coach had
lower levels of life satisfaction and a lower
sense that their daily activities were worth
on average than those who commute to
work by private vehicle. Besides of well-
being measurement, this research compares
the time spent for one way trip of
commuting and its effect towards
wellbeing. The time spent were divide into
two categories which is 16-30 minutes and
longer than 30 minutes. The result of this
research is that those who commute to the
work by private vehicle, cycling within 16-
30 minutes to work, taking long journey by
bus and train had lower level of happiness
and higher anxiety levels.
However, the research by Daniel
Mauss, Marc N. Jarczok and Joachim E.
Fischer (2016) shows contradict results to
be compare with another. A research named
“Daily commuting to work is not associated
with variables of health”, this research were
tested to define is there has a negative
impact on employee health regarding
commuting to work activities among
German industrial employees. This
research adapt self-rated variables of an
industrial cohort including absenteeism,
presentism and indices reflecting stress and
well being through a questionnaire. In the
aspect of health, the blood samples, heart-
rate variability and anthropometric data
were collected. The commuting were
grouped into four timing categories such as
0-19.9 minutes, 20-44.9 minutes, 45-59.9
minutes and >60 minutes commuting to the
work. With a total sample of 3805 where
78.9% of the sample are male, this research
found that commuting to work has no
significant impact on well-being and health
(in the aspect of absenteeism, perceived
stress) of German industrial employees.
The depression, anxiety and stress
scale (DASS) was basically developed by
Lovibond and Lovibond (1995) and
proposed by Australian Psychological
Society. This scale were applied in order to
reveal psychological status of the individual
and determining the level of negative
emotional states. The DASS was normed on
a sample of 1044 males and 1870 females
aged between 17-69 years old from varying
background including undergraduates,
nurses in training and employees of an
airline, bank, railway workshop and a naval
dockyard. DASS subscales were
subsequently checked for validity against
outpatients with anxiety and depressive
disorders, insomniacs as well as patients of
menopausal, sexual treatment and
depressive disorders. The Cronbach Alpha
internal consistency coefficients have been
determined for depression (.96), anxiety
(.89) and stress scale (.93) it shows that they
are efficient for statistical analysis.
Josephine, Erik and Kitty (2006)
conduct a research of Web Based Survey of
Depression, Anxiety and Stress in First
Year Tertiary Education Students in Hong
Kong. The objective of this study is to
examine the prevalence of depression,
anxiety and stress in first-year tertiary
education students in Hong Kong. This
study used DASS completed on the web by
participating students anonymously. The
sample of 7915 students with response rate
of 27.5% found that depression, anxiety and
stress levels of moderate severity and above
was at 21%, 41% and 27% of the
respondents.
Conceptual Framework
Psychological Stress
Anxiety
Level of satisfaction
Depression
towards Public Transport
Stress

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of levels of satisfaction towards public transport towards

psychological stress of employee who commute to the work by public transport
Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework gender of each respondent. The design of
for this study. The independent variable is a questionnaire consist four sections which is
level of satisfaction towards public Part A for demographic information, Part B
transport. The satisfaction level are for commuting satisfaction and Part C is a
measure as what Wilson (2012) suggest psychological stress (DASS instrument).
which is quality of services, prices, equity SPSS 20 were used to analyse the data.
and fairness. While the psychological stress
Sampling Method
instrument based on Lovibond & Lovibond
The targeted sample those are suitable for
(1995) as psychological stress are divided
this research is those who aged 18-60 years
into three dimension such as anxiety,
old, still working and currently used public
depression and stress.
transport as their medium to go and fro from
METHODOLOGY work daily. Department of Statistic
Malaysia reported that in 2016, there are
Research Design
about 8 272 000 employed individual in
The quantitative method is a suitable
Kuala Lumpur. (Department of Statistic
method for this research. It is because
Malaysia). With 24% users of public
quantitative method is believe to provide
transport make it 1 985 280 sample for this
detailed description and analysis on the
research then the most appropriate sample
relationship between satisfaction level of
with 5% margin of error is 385 sample
commuting to work by public transport
suggest by Raosoft.com. However due to
towards psychological stress. The
some circumstances by the aspect of time
independent variable for this research is
and cost spent, researcher only manage to
satisfaction levels of commuting to work
get 192 sample out of 385. Based on simple
via public transport, while the dependent
random sampling, the sample will be
variable is psychological stress. Moreover,
approach through social media and public
demographic information are important for
transport station for busses (Pasar Seni) and
this research as it helps to identify the
train (KL Sentral, MRT and KTM Sungai
relationship between commuting
Buloh). Table 1 shows the distribution of
satisfaction and psychological stress by
the sample.
related information such as age,
employment status, marriage status and
Table 1: Demographic Data of Sample

Variable Description Percentage

 Gender Male
Female
Age 20 years old & below
21-35 years old
36-50 years old
51-60 years old
Employment Status Permanent
Near End Contract
Freelance/business
Unemployed
Mode of Public Transport KTMB
LRT
ERL/Monorail
MRT
Bus
Taxi/Grab/Uber
Instrument
This research apply self-report questionnaire where
there are 37 questions divided into 4 sections in the
questionnaire. Part A consists of 5 demographic
questions, part B consists of 11 questions regarding
satisfaction levels of commuters experience and
Part C consists of 21 questions to measure
psychological health level.
The public transport satisfaction was
adapted from the Thomas Hardye School Transport
Questionnaire which is being conducted by
Dorchester Youth Extra (2015) and tally with
dimension proposed by Wilson (2012). The
researcher then develop the questionnaire through
adapt and adopt technique as for make it
convenient and reliable for this study. This
instrument apply 5 point Likert Scale which is start
from (1) for very satisfied, (2) somewhat satisfied,
(3) neither satisfied or dissatisfied, (4) somewhat
dissatisfied, and (5) very dissatisfied.
The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale
is consist 21-items (DASS-21). This instrument is
a set of three self-report scales designed to measure
the emotional states of depression, anxiety and
stress. However, this current study tends to focus
39.6%
60.4%
1.6%
53.1%
36.5%
8.9%
75.5%
3.6%
19.8%
1.0%
25.5%
14.6%
6.8%
31.3%
14.6%
7.3%
on the stress scale only. In further, the stress scale
is sensitive on the levels of chronic non-specific
arousal. The subscales for stress are include
difficulty relaxing, nervous arousal, and being
easily upset, agitated, irritable, over-reactive and
impatient (M Asad Zandi, R. Sayari & A Ebadi,
2011).
In further, DASS-21 is based on a
dimensional and has the assessment which is the
range of level included low, medium and high. This
range of stress level will not apply for this recent
study. The calculation for DASS-21 is by summing
the scores for the relevant item. The range choice
for this research is range from (0) did not apply to
me at all to (3) Applied to me very much or most
of the time (Asad, 2011).
However, the range score has be changed
for the current study which is Likert scale is begin
with (1) “Never”, to (4) “Almost Always”. The
recent range score will represent (1) as not stress
and (4) as stress to facilitate respondent of the score
range.
The reliability of two dimensions which are
satisfaction levels of commuters towards public
transport and stress level are shown in table 2.
 public transport commuting and psychological
stress among commuters and were tested by
Pearson Correlation, r =.124 which give the
meaning that commuting satisfaction and
psychological stress have a very weak positive
Table 2: Reliability Analysis
correlation. While, the significant level p = .085 >
Instrument Cronbach’s 0.05 mean that null hypothesis is accepted, there is
Alpha no significant relationship between commuting
Public transport .922 satisfaction and psychological stress.
satisfaction levels
The second hypothesis is H02, there is no
Stress Level .945
significant relationship between satisfaction levels
Total .923 towards public transport commuting and stress
level among commuters and were tested by
The result of reliability analysis for each dimension Pearson Correlation, r = .120 which give the
applied in this research. The Cronbach Alpha for meaning that commuting satisfaction and stress
public transport satisfaction levels is .922 which level have a very weak positive correlation. While,
means excellent consistency between the items. the significant level p = .098 > 0.05 mean that null
The same goes for stress level reliability which is hypothesis is accepted, there is no significant
near to 1.0 which is .945. The overall reliability for
both measurements also indicates excellent relationship between commuting satisfaction and
consistency between the items which is .923. The stress level.
reliability for this research is accepted and can be
The third hypothesis is H03, there is no
used for future measurement.
significant relationship between satisfaction levels
RESULTS towards public transport commuting and anxiety
A total of 192 respondents were recruited with the level among commuters and were tested by
population size of 1 985 280 consisting of public Pearson Correlation, r = .178 which give the
transport users in Klang Valley. A sample size of 385 is meaning that commuting satisfaction and anxiety
recommended for a population size of 1 985 280 in level have a very weak positive correlation. While,
order to establish 5% of margin error and 95% of
the significant level p = .013 < 0.05 mean that null
confidence interval. Pearson correlation was conducted
to examine the relationship between satisfaction levels hypothesis is rejected, there is a significant
towards public transport and psychological stress. relationship between commuting satisfaction and
anxiety level.
Table 3 shows the result of correlation between
satisfaction levels towards public transport and The last hypothesis is H04, there is no
psychological stress. significant relationship between satisfaction levels
towards public transport commuting and
Pearson depression level among commuters and were tested
Hypothesis Sig (2tailed)
Correlation by Pearson Correlation, r = .050 which give the
H01 .124 .085 meaning that commuting satisfaction and
depression level have no correlation. While, the
H02 .120 .098 significant level p = .487 > 0.05 mean that null
hypothesis is accepted, there is no significant
H03 .178 .013
relationship between commuting satisfaction and
H04 .050 .487 depression level.

DISCUSSION
The result show there is no relationship between
The first hypothesis is H01, there is no significant
commuting satisfaction and psychological stress.
relationship between satisfaction levels towards
There is very weak correlations since the result r =
.124 and p = 0.85>0.05 that lead to the acceptance
of the null hypothesis 1. It means that even if the
commuters feels dissatisfied or satisfied with their
commuting experience, it does not impact their
psychological stress. This is supported by Dr Lewis
(2010) in telegraph.uk reveal that commuting to
work via public transport are more relaxing
compare to driving own car. It is agreed as
commuting by public transport do provide “my me
time” where passenger have a plenty of time to
being relax, read their favourite book or hear
music.
Customer Satisfaction Survey by
Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat (SPAD)
(2015) found that 75% of commuters do satisfy
with the quality of public transport in Malaysia.
Most of the prominent factors why they choose
public transport are i) do not have own vehicle
(50%), ii) do not to worry about parking spaces
(42%), iii) station is near from house or working
area (39%), iv) cheaper to compare with the cost of
private transport (33%) and v) do not have to worry
about getting stuck in traffic jam (30%). This prove
that Malaysian commuters do have high
satisfactory levels towards their commuting
experience by using public transport.
Moreover, for hypothesis 2, result of
correlation coefficient for relationship between
satisfaction levels and stress level among
commuters is weak as the Pearson Correlation, r =
.120 with p = 0.98 > 0.05. This gives the meaning
that majority of respondent do satisfy with their
commuting activity and also feels comfortable as
the journey are not contribute to any stress
condition. This might be because majority of the
respondent are at their adult age which is 21 to 35
years old and they might still actives and healthy
for daily commuting journey. As supported by
Victoria Public Transport Institute found that the
level of satisfaction using public transport may
impact mental health if the quality is low. High
quality public transport can reduce emotional
stress. This also gives the meaning that, most of
commuters in Klang Valley do have moderate
satisfaction (Mean = 3.67) with their commuting
experience via public transport. International
Islamic University Malaysia (2012) through the
article of “An Empirical Study of the Effect of
Commuting Stress on Employees Work and Life”
found that 660 commuters experience longer
commuters are significantly associated with a
greater increase in commuting stress. Thus, the
research indicate that there are no correlation or
relationship between commuters satisfaction and
stress levels except if the commuting take a long
journey (45 minutes and above).
Followed by hypothesis 3, indicate weak
relationship where Pearson Correlation, r = .178,
while p = .013 < 0.05 lead to rejection of null
hypothesis. It gives the meaning that satisfaction
levels have a relationship towards anxiety level
among commuters. This anxiety feeling might be
because of majority of respondent of this research
is a women aged 21 to 35 years old, where at this
age they are still have low confidence or self-
esteem to expose theirself insecurely in a public.
Thus, many women is actually feels insecure that
lead to the anxiety while they are on board because
the public transport such as bus always mixing the
man and woman together and also the foreigners.
This is supported by a study conducted by
Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) (Rohana Sham,
Syed Hassan, Khalifah Soltani, Mashita Sham &
Suhana Mohame, 2012) found that most women
who live in urban area who have no choice but to
travel using public transport rate a higher feeling of
unsafe when travelling not only during the night
time but also during the day time. This research
also found that age of women traveller also affect
the level of safety indication where older women
tend to rate a higher level of unsafe while travelling
using public transport. Even though the number of
crime occurrence in Malaysia has shown a
declining trend, the feeling of unsafe among
women traveller is still very high.
And the last but not least is hypothesis 4,
The result of this hypothesis is no correlation with
r = .050 and p = .487>0.05 that lead to the
acceptance of this null hypothesis. The result prove
that there is no significant relationship between
satisfaction levels and depression level among
public transport commuters. Based on the past
study, the factor might be because samples for this
study are not experience long hours commuting
(more than 40 minutes) as the usual timing from
KTM Sungai Buloh to KL Sentral is less than 30
minutes. Commuting by MRT from Sungai Buloh
to Muzium Negara (KL Sentral) takes about 20
minutes with only 5 minute waiting time gap. In
addition, as majority of them do agreed that they
enjoy their “my me time” during their commuting
journey, does it make they feels comfortable and
does not feels burden for a long commuting journey
because they are doing what they like. This is
supported by a study from International Islamic
University Malaysia (2012) found that 660
commuters experience longer commuters are
significantly associated with a greater increase in
commuting stress. They also reveal that the strain
of commuting affects commuters’ reports of
somatic symptoms of ill health and commute
displeasure. In addition, commuting stress is found
to affect commuters’ intention to quit their job but
not in terms of their job or life satisfaction.
Limitation
There are number of limitation in conducting this
research. The first limitation is limited time span
for researcher to collect data thus it impacts the
process and progress in conducting this research.
Researcher have less than one month to collect data
at various places in Klang Valley. As researcher is
a student, the time management are important
because this task clash with other subject
assessment and assignment. Due to this limitation,
researcher only able to approach respondent at
KTM and MRT station and are not able to approach
other’s public transport station to have their
commuter’s respond. However, as this research are
not highlight the mode of public transport used,
then the unbalance number of respondent that
commute by different mode of public transport
should not have any impact towards the originality
and result of this research.
The second limitation for this research is
the way researcher distribute the questionnaire.
There are basically two ways of distributing which
is online and paper-pencil. In the area of data
collection, researcher use QR Code for online
questionnaire and paper pencil for those who prefer
manually. Most of the respondent need personal
monitor and assistance on how to access the QR
code, they still have no idea how to scan the QR
code through their device. This explanation are
actually not realistic as it taking much time. Even
there have a note on how to access the QR code,
most of respondent still ask for assistance, this lead
researcher to giving the paper-pencil questionnaire.
Moreover, the monitoring process for
respondent may not happen smoothly. As
researcher are not waiting single respondent to
finish their questionnaire, thus the explanation
about the questionnaire is limited. However,
considering majority of the respondent is a
management employees who are able to
communicate English very well, it makes
researcher feel confident to let they have their own
time to fill in the questionnaire. In collecting the
data, the researcher briefly explain the purpose of
this questionnaire and ask their availability to
answering the questionnaire, then move to other
group (2-3 people) to explain the same thing.
The last limitation is that this research are
only conducted in quantitative method. Thus it
provide limited information as much as what listed
in a questionnaire. If this research are able to
conduct interview, it may have more depth
information such as why they choose public
transport and the impact or effect of stress they
have experience through their commuting activity.
This limitation may results on the weak correlation
for each dimension of psychological stress.
Recommendation
For future recommendation in conducting this
research, the researcher may should first have in
depth study about satisfaction levels and
psychological stress. A better understanding may
lead to more proper questionnaire that will provide
more information. As there are lack of resources
regarding this topic in Malaysia, researcher may
able to refer to international research paper in
studying this topic. It prove that the environment of
other country are contradict with our country as
most commuters are not even feels stress
commuting by public transport.
The second recommendation is based on
the time spending. The more time spent able to
approach more reliable respondent for this
research. The data collection time should be longer psychological stress of an employees (Adam
in order to approach more respondent. As the Martin, Yevgeniy Goryakin, Marc Suhrcke, 2014).
sample of employed individual in Klang Valley is
Organization are able to adapt this research
8 272 000 with 24% users of public transport make
and refine it for future use in the aspect of
it 1 985 280 sample for this research then the most
considering to giving out incentive or allowance
appropriate sample with 5% margin of error is
for public transport commuters in a workplace. For
supposed to be 385 sample. However, as the time
example, Sime Darby Property giving out an
is limited, then the researcher only able to make it
allowance for public transport ticket and providing
192 sample for this research. This number of
shuttle transport from the station to the office in
sample are not really satisfying to be compare to
order to help employees able to arrive at work on
the actual number of population. It is believed with
time and fresh as they no need to have 15 minutes
more lengthy time and sufficient funds, this
walking from station to office.
research will able to achieve its total respondent.
Hopefully, in the future there will be more
The third recommendation in the aspect of
research regarding work commuting via public
giving out inform consent towards sample such as
transport in Malaysia as this transport issue are still
explanation and monitoring the respondent while
the issue that contribute to the work performance.
answering the questionnaire. Researcher may not
Recently, there are many issues regarding
able to do it by their own, alone. Thus as a
transportation such as increase in petrol price and
recommendation researcher should have some
air pollution in Klang Valley because of majority
number of people, two or three people to help them
of Malaysian still under rated the usage of public
in monitoring the questionnaire. Thus, sample are
transport for commuting to work and lack of
able to understand the questions more properly and
awareness on how private transport may impact
are able to give reliable answer for this research.
environment and well-being. More research will
The last recommendation is if it is possible act as a promotional tools to change this mind-set
try to conduct mix method research which is and bring Malaysia towards a healthy land, high
qualitative and quantitative research. This mix employee performance and success
method helps researcher to have more precise, industrialization.
detailed and proper information of the research
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 APPENDIX A

Public Transport satisfaction towards Stress Level

This simple survey helps you to measure the level of your satisfaction on using public transport towards
your stress regarding your daily commuting trip to the work by using public transport.

This survey consists of 4 section, it may takes about 5-10 minutes for you to complete.

You may tick (v) your preferred answer.

* Required
Part A: Demographic
1. What is your age? *
o 20 years old & below
o 21-35 years old
o 36-50 years old
o 51-60 years old

2. What is your gender? *

o Female
o Male

3. What is your marital status? *

o Single
o Single with dependent (parents, sibling)
o Single parents
o Married

4. Your current employment status? *

o Permanent workers
o Near end contract
o Freelance/business/part time
o Unemployed

5. Your monthly income? *

o Below RM 1,500
o RM 1,501 - RM 3,000
o RM 3,001 - RM 4,500
o RM 4,500 and above
 Part B: Commuting Activity
1. Which mode of transport do you frequently used? *
o KTMB
o LRT
o Monorail/ERL
o MRT
o Bus
o Taxi/Grab/Uber

2. How frequent do you used public transport in a week *

o Once a week
o Everyday
o Rarely

3. This column will rate your level of satisfaction in using public transport

1: Very Dissatisfied
2: Somewhat Dissatisfied
3: Neither Satisfied or dissatisfied
4: Somewhat Satisfied
5: Very Satisfied

Are you satisfy with/on how the… 1 2 3 4 5

Driver or conductor treat you?

Other passenger treat you?

Safety on public transport?

Route information is provided?

Flow of your journey?

Cost of fare that you pay?

Timetable or frequency for depart and arrival time?

Journey time?

Condition of the station?

Part C: Depression, Anxiety, Stress Survey

Please read each statement and indicate how much the statement applied to you over the past
week.
1: NEVER - Did not apply to me at all
2: SOMETIMES - Applied to me to some degree, or some of the time
3: OFTEN - Applied to me to a considerable degree, or a good part of time
4: ALMOST ALWAYS - Applied to me very much, or most of the time

Statement 1 2 3 4
I found it hard to wind down
I was aware of dryness of my mouth
I couldn’t seem to experience any positive feeling at all
I experienced breathing difficulty (eg: excessively rapid breathing,
breathlessness)
I found it difficult to work up the initiative to do things
I tended to over-react to situations
I experience trembling (hands)
I felt that I was using a lot of nervous energy
I was worried about situations in which I might panic and make a
fool of myself
I felt that I had nothing to look forward to
I found myself getting agitated
I found it difficult to relax
I felt down-hearted and blue
I was intolerant of anything that kept me from getting on with what
I was doing
I felt I was close to panic
I was unable to become enthusiastic about anything
I felt I wasn’t worth much as a person
I felt that I was rather touchy
I was aware of the action of my heart in the absence of physical
exertion
I felt scared without any good reason
I felt that life was meaningless
Thank you 