Implications of a Twitter data-centred methodology for assessing commuters’ perceptions of the Delhi metro in India

Abstract

Owing to the onset of the new media age, the idea of e-public participation has proven to be a great complement to the limitations of the conventional public participation approach. In this respect, location-based social networks (LBSN) data can prove to be a game shift in this digital era to offer an insight into the commuter perception of service delivery. The paper aims to investigate the potential of using Twitter data to assess commuters’ perceptions of the Delhi metro, India, by presenting a comprehensive methodology for extracting, processing, and interpreting the data. The study extracts Twitter data from the official handle of the Delhi metro, performs semantic and sentiment analysis to comprehend commuters’ concerns and assesses commuters’ sentiments on the predicted concerns. The paper outlines that the current depth of Twitter data is more inclined to instantaneous responses to grievances encountered. Moreover, the analysis presents that for the data extraction period, the topics ‘Ride Safety’ and ‘Crowding’ have the lowest scores, while ‘Personnel Attitude’ and ‘Customer Interface’ have the highest scores. Further, the paper highlights insights gleaned from Twitter data in addition to the aspects included in the conventional satisfaction survey. The paper concludes by outlining the opportunities and limitations of LBSN analytics for effective public transportation decision-making in India.