Citation

Ryan CW, Schermerhorn RS. Transp. Res. Rec. 1981; 808: 68-76.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The National Energy Conservation Policy Act of 1978 mandated that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) conduct a study of the energy conservation potential of bicycling. One of the expressed objectives of the study was that a comprehensive bicycle transportation program be developed to address current obstacles to bicycle use. This paper describes and analyzes the approach taken to develop that program. The primary problem encountered in developing the program was that there are a multitude of obstacles to increased bicycle use and, similarly, a multitude of experts' opinions about which obstacles are the most important. To aid in gaining an overview of the issues and experts' opinions, a formal decision-analysis method called worth assessment was employed. During the application of worth assessment, experts organized problem issues into a hierarchy of program objectives and numerically evaluated the relative importance of those objectives for achieving increased bicycle use. A comprehensive bicycle program was then synthesized to respond to those objectives identified as most important. Difficulties were encountered in using the worth-assessment technique, e.g., determination of the level of detail for which discussion was appropriate, semantics problems, and a lack of consensus among experts on certain issues. However, through the use of worth assessment the following benefits were derived: (a) a comprehensive overview of the bicycling problem was synthesized, (b) experts throughout the country for the first time concurrently dealt with identical subject material to identify key obstacles to bicycling, and (c) DOT and Congress were given direction for policy priorities based on experts' quantitative rankings of issues.