Factors affecting the preference of means of road transport in Mbarara: a case study of Rubindi Town Council

Abstract

The study aimed at investigating the preference of means of road transport in Rubindi Town Council. The study put emphasis on means of transport as the independent variable and these were sex, location, age, education level and income as dependent variable. The study focused on finding out the means of road transport system and the characteristics of people who preferred them, and to establish the relationship between them. The data was collected using questionnaires using a random sample in three villages in Rubindi Town Council. Sample was to take one hundred ninty six respondents. The data was analyzed using Stata for univariate and bivariate analysis. The descriptive statistics was done using graphs and pie charts. The bivariate analysis was done using the Pearson chi-square using the 5%level of significance. The fishers exact test was used reported in case the cell counts were less than or equal to five. From the analysis, all the relationships with the means of road transport that were significant were age, location and income.Sex and education level were not significant. This meant that the means of transport used by the respondents depended on these characteristics age, income, and location. Different means of transport were suggested by different people and from analysis it showed that majority of the people preferred boda boda. I concluded that from the research the means of transport were affected by the location, income and age. A strong recommendation was made to the government, society and communities to improve the means of transport by maintaining their roads and monitoring them regularly to ensure they are in good conditions. This would easy means of road transport system during their operation.