Abstract
Recently, there has been a transparent need to involve public in transport development decisions not only in the EU but also in other countries worldwide. Public involvement in decision-making, however, suffers from two critical issues: lack of expertise and lack of enthusiasm. This paper aims to overcome the first problem: how to amend passenger preferences related to public transport development with expert knowledge on transport systems. For this purpose, a new research methodology has been created which combines the well proven Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) methods in a novel way. ISM is used to reveal the non-hierarchical connections of the transport system elements and by this, AHP results are modified with the consideration of element interactions. The first stage of the three-stage-survey has been conducted in Yurihonjo (Japan), the second and third in an international workshop with the participation of experts. Results show that the original AHP scores – gained from passenger evaluations – are significantly modified by adding expert knowledge on factor interactions, thus new preference order is gained related to the importance of the development of public transport system elements. The introduced procedure can be applied for other public transport system improvement decision-making situations in which passenger involvement is required.
Introduction
The recent decades have shown the growing importance of public engagement in transportation decision-making. The notion itself can be defined as “involvement in decision-making with the purpose of influencing the choice(s) being made” (Renn et al. 1995). Public participation has not only become part of legislation – e.g. the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for Users – US Government (2005) – but the amount of case studies attempting to solicit public opinion has also been increasing (see among others the developments described by Aparicio (2007); Cascetta and Pagliara (2013) and De Luca (2014). The number of connected guidelines and booklets are also growing – e.g. A Guide to Transportation Decisionmaking – US DoT (2015). Burall and Shahrokh (2010) present nine recommendations on how to engage the public in these decision making processes; among others also declaring that “government must take final responsibility for making fair and balanced policy decisions that are informed by dialogue with the public”.
