The phoenix metropolitan area is currently almost completely dominated by the private car to service its mobility needs. However, while the car will remain the principal mode of travel for the foreseeable future a high quality transit system could reduce the region's dependence on private transport. In order to establish how successful any enhanced system might be Transecon International (on behalf of London Transport International) in association with the American firm CRS Sirrine Inc. developed a travel demand forecasting procedure incorporating both stated preference models and sketch planning techniques. This provided for a level of behavioural and policy sensitivity which conventional modal choice models are generally incapable of achieving. The results of the stated preference research point to certain design prerequisites for any new transit system to achieve success. The transit specific attribute preference design chosen for this study by including linking variables common to both the stated preference and sketch planning models enabled the invehicle time and/or fare equivalent values estimated for each of the transit features defined by the "soft variables" to be input to the sketch planning models. The implications of these "soft variables" effects for modal choice were then estimated for individual corridors or at regional level.
Abstract