Competing for level of service in the provision of mobility services: Concepts, processes and measures Rosário Macário CESUR, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon Technical University, Portugal TIS.pt, Consultores em Transportes, Inovação e Sistemas S.A, Portugal Keywords: Mobility Accessibility Level of service Quality of service Accounting framework Process abstract One of the most striking problems societies currently deal with is to assure adequate quality standards while improving accessibility within and between cities. In addition there is also a growing awareness that, to achieve a sustainable balance between private and public means of mobility, policies have to be able to send the correct signals in order to induce users adaptive behaviour, which in turn will provide the system with a reliable feedback on the needs for further investment and expansion of transport facilities. The definition and measurement of quality of service of the transport system is thus an objective aimed by both users and producers and it is often represented by the rather holistic concept of Level of Service (LoS). However, the LoS concept is not consciously used by users, on the contrary the user concentrates her comparative evaluation on what is simply known as quality. It is the planner that translates planned quality into LoS concept. So, LoS is a concept at the interface between the provider and the user. Given the interface character of the LoS concept an accounting framework for LoS should thus take into account the need to segregate the evaluation for passengers and freight transport and also distinguish between types of travellers in the case of passenger transport and types of commodities or logistic families in the case of freight transport. Moreover the bridge between the planner and the user view must be ensured. This paper reports the results of a research work dedicated to this topic. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction One of the most striking problems societies currently deal with is to assure adequate standards while improving accessibility within and between cities. In addition there is also a growing awareness that, to achieve a sustainable balance between private and public means of mobility, policies have to be able to send the correct signals in order to induce users adaptive behaviour, which in turn will provide the system with a reliable feedback on the needs for further investment and expansion of transport facilities. The definition and measurement of quality of service of the transport system is thus an objective aimed by both users and producers and it is often repre- sented by the rather holistic concept of Level of Service (LoS). Level of service (LoS) is a complex and multidimensional concept, useful for users to compare services provided by different transport companies, and decide which company to select for a specific journey (Sussman, 2000). However, the LoS concept is not consciously used by users, on the contrary the user concentrates her comparative evaluation on what is simply known as quality. It is the planner that translates planned quality into LoS concept. So, LoS is a concept at the interface between the provider and the user. Similar considerations apply when comparing the performance of different modes, for instance road vs. rail. Such comparisons are standard in the transport literature and are used as a basis for developing policies that promote the development of one or the other mode towards fairer competition. For instance, infrastructure investment into the rail sector in conjunction with charges on road users are clearly meant to upgrade the perceived level of service of the rail sector, while at the same time, compensating the high levels of service of the road sector with higher prices (Andersen et al., 2007). Factors influencing level of service are the infrastructure capacity, bottlenecks, the organization and management of the network as well as the latter’s robustness, i.e. the ability of the network to function efficiently also in the case of serious disruptions such as bad weather conditions or other disturbing factor. All these performance elements can be at the same time causes of congestion and this is why the study of LoS is often compounded with that of congestion. Given the interface character of the LoS concept an accounting framework for LoS should thus take into account the need to segregate the evaluation for passengers and freight transport and also distinguish between types of travellers in the case of passenger E-mail address: rosariomacario@civil.ist.utl.pt. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Research in Transportation Economics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/retrec 0739-8859/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.retrec.2010.07.033 Research in Transportation Economics 29 (2010) 261e274