User Attitude Surveys and Transportation System Development 720176
This paper deals with a new concept of transportation system development based on well-established psychophysical principles. It reviews briefly the traditional method of transportation system development and modification. The point is made that it now becomes necessary to reverse the usual trend of declining public transportation system usage. The “new philosophy” of system development utilizing user-oriented techniques in the form of attitude surveys is presented as a possible aid in enhancing public transit use.
As an exemplar to illustrate four techniques (paired comparison, semantic scaling, branch-and-bounds interview, and document attitude analysis) the methods and some representative data of General Motors Research Laboratories' Transportation Research Department case study of a door-to-door (demand-actuated) public transportation system are discussed.
It is prognosticated that the use of survey-type techniques to measure both user and nonuser attitudes will increase in transportation system development.
