Build for Comfort, Not Just Speed

Travelers tend to place a high value on qualitative factors such as convenience, comfort, security and prestige. However, conventional transport planning practices tend to focus on quantitative impacts and undervalue qualitative impacts. This paper describes ways to evaluate qualitative impacts. Improved travel convenience and comfort tend to reduce unit travel time costs and so are equivalent in value to increased travel speed. Improved analysis of qualitative factors can expand the range of impacts and options considered in transport evaluation, leading to better planning decisions. It is particularly important for efforts to encourage use of alternative modes such as walking, cycling and public transit.