Understanding the relationship between voting preferences for public transport and perceptions and preferences for bus rapid transit versus light rail

This paper provides evidence on the key perceived barriers that mitigate against support for BRT in the presence of LRT options. We develop best-worst preference experiments, one associated with design characteristics, another with service descriptions associated with BRT and LRT, and an experiment that focuses on voting preferences more generally. The focus of this paper is establishing a mapping between the voting preference evidence and the relative support for bus (BRT) and LRT, and distinguishing between public transport users and non-users in order to provide an evidence base for rational debate. A survey in six capital cities in Australia provides the empirical context