THE USE OF STATED PREFERENCES FROM AMONG HYPOTHETICAL CHOICE ALTERNATIVES IS BECOMING WIDESPREAD IN TRANSPORT POLICY RESEARCH. THE VALIDITY OF SUCH DATA WHEN USED TO PREDICT BEHAVIOUR IN ACTUAL CHOICE SITUATIONS IS AN ISSUE WHICH CONCERNS MANY POLICY MAKERS AND ANALYSTS. IN RESPONSE TO SUCH CONCERNS, MUCH EFFORT HAS GONE TOWARDS MAKING STATED PREFERENCE TECHNIQUES MORE ADAPTIVE AND REALISTIC IN THE PARTICULAR CHOICE CONTEXT WHERE THEY ARE USED. THIS PAPER DISCUSSES MANY OF THE ASPECTS OF STATED PREFERENCE APPLICATIONS WHICH MAY AFFECT THE VALIDITY OF THE DATA, AND THEN DESCRIBES A NUMBER OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ADDRESSING THESE ISSUES. ONE DEVELOPMENT RECEIVING SPECIAL ATTENTION IS THE USE OF PORTABLE MICROCOMPUTERS TO CUSTOMISE THE HYPOTHETICAL TRAVEL ALTERNATIVES AND PRESENT THEM TO RESPONDENTS - AN APPROACH WHICH APPEARS TO HOLD GREAT POTENTIAL FOR CREATING MORE REALISTIC AND RELEVANT STATED PREFERENCE EXPERIMENTS.(Author/publisher).
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