01595798

Component

Existing research regarding light rail has approached a number of topics relevant to the mode of transportation but has largely ignored the relationship of perception towards light rail and effect on support for such projects. Connecting such support to smaller scale planning issues is a way to give planners more agency over a given project’s success. Using data from a Twin Cities Metropolitan Area survey on travel behavior, public transportation, and perceptions of neighborhood change, this paper looks to connect existing research to factors affecting support for Light Rail. An ordered logistic regression of the question “What is your overall opinion of light rail?” on a number of different factors reveals important connections to neighborhood change around ease of parking and traffic safety along walking routes. Expected improved traffic safety shifts answers more positive, as does expected worsening of parking. The first result fits with existing understandings, while the second provides a counterintuitive result possibly relating to respondent’s conceptions of the question. In both cases, these results identify factors important to support of light rail that are malleable for practitioners on a useful scale.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP075 Standing Committee on Light Rail Transit.

01584066

16-5743

English

12p

2016

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting

Web

References (20) ; Tables

City planning; Light rail transit; Metropolitan areas; Neighborhoods; Public opinion; Walking

Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (Minnesota)

Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2016 Paper #16-5743

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 12 2016 6:31PM