Do preferences for BRT and LRT vary across geographical jurisdictions? A comparative assessment of six Australian capital cities Corinne Mulley, David A. Hensher *, John Rose Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, The Business School, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia 1. Introduction Cities are the productive centres of modern economies where an efficient public transport system plays a critical role. Public transport (PT) modes serve many roles in cities throughout the world. Developing and updating public transport infrastructure is one of the most complex and far-reaching investment decisions for government. Better public transport and transport infrastructure generates benefits for users and helps manage urban congestion and climate change. It can facilitate the economically productive agglomerations of firms and improve accessibility to goods, services and activities, which is the ultimate goal of most transport activity. Notwithstanding, the sheer size and scale economies of modern transport systems infrastructure are hugely expensive. It would seem appropriate that any debate about mode should follow a mode agnostic evaluation of need. A rational debate on the opportunities offered by different public transport (PT) modes in particular should ensure that best value for money is obtained in the choice of PT mode where the choice is made on objective grounds, ensuring the required service levels can be met and the contribution of the new infrastructure to the system as a whole delivers on key criteria such as connectivity, frequency and visibility within a network. Many cities are looking to expand their PT network in response to growth in city populations and consequential increasing congestion. Aiming to encourage mode switch, the debates have focussed on comparing light rail transit (LRT) and bus rapid transit (BRT). However, despite many arguments promoting the advan- tages of BRT, there exists much resistance to BRT as an alternative to a rail solution. Perceptions appear to be at the root of the problem since the literature demonstrates that other factors, particularly quality in the form of frequency, have much more of an impact on ridership and ridership potential (Currie and Wallis, 2008; Hensher and Li, 2012) with a recent paper identifying that ‘‘Overall the results suggest that transit mode does not have a significant ridership effect, at least in regards to boardings per vehicle kilometre’’ Currie and Delbrosc (2013) p59. Perceptions seem to affect all stakeholders and importantly the decision- makers, as a shown by the following quote from The Atlantic Cities (July 8 2013). ‘‘When the city of Wellington, New Zealand, decided to expand its public transit system, Mayor Celia Wade-Brown initially favoured light rail as the so-called sexy option. Then the project Case Studies on Transport Policy 2 (2014) 1–9 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Available online 19 November 2013 Keywords: Bus rapid transit Light rail transit Modal preferences Australian cities Jurisdictional differences Best–worst experiment A B S T R A C T Developing and updating public transport infrastructure is one of the most complex and far-reaching investment decisions for government. Better public transport and transport infrastructure generates benefits for users and helps manage urban congestion and climate change. This paper presents the results of a survey of residents of six capital cities in Australia to investigate potential jurisdictional differences and similarities in the support for BRT in the presence of LRT options, a common context in many metropolitan areas. We develop two best–worst preference experiments, one associated with design characteristics and the other with service descriptions, in which a number of statements about bus, BRT and LRT, are presented in sets of four, and respondents are asked to indicate which one they perceive as the best circumstance and which one they perceive as the worst. The sets of statements are varied across preference sets to elicit the role of each statement as an identified barrier against or in support of BRT and/or LRT. The main focus of the experiments is to assist in the development of a strategy to promote BRT and to break through the barriers that have created the modal misperceptions so common in many geographical jurisdictions. A survey of residents of six capital cities in Australia provides the empirical context. Ongoing research is extending the study to other locations throughout the world. ß 2013 World Conference on Transport Research Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 418433057; fax: +61 98996674. E-mail addresses: Corinne.Mulley@sydney.edu.au (C. Mulley), David.Hensher@sydney.edu.au (D.A. Hensher), John.Rose@sydney.edu.au (J. Rose). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Case Studies on Transport Policy jo u rn al h om ep age: ww w.els evier.c o m/lo c ate/c stp 2213-624X/$ – see front matter ß 2013 World Conference on Transport Research Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2013.11.001