A Utility-Based Method for Urban Transportation System Multi-Modal Level of Service Evaluation

Abstract

Level of Service (LOS) in transportation refers to the traveler's perception of the quality of transportation service achieved from the traffic condition and the facility. A fundamental problem in traditional LOS evaluations for a transportation system is that it is always auto-centric. This means that the LOS for automobiles is always considered above other travel modes. In the new era of green transportation, there is an urgent need for a new LOS evaluation method so that other modes - including bus, light rail, bike and pedestrians - can also be evaluated, thus providing a more comprehensive assessment of the facility. The evaluation of LOS should focus on `travelers' instead of `drivers'. Furthermore, current LOS measures may not adequately reflect LOS as perceived by travelers. Focusing on these two issues, a new utility-based method to measure the urban transportation system LOS is proposed. The utility theory and user equilibrium model are used to establish and solve the problem. The proposed multimodal LOS measure is based on the aggregated utility of all travelers in the transportation system, which is estimated by a traveler's utility function that considers impact factors such as travel time and cost. The objective of this paper is to develop a model to calculate the threshold or maximum value of the LOS categories, which is determined based on total utility of the travelers in the transportation system. Results verify the feasibility of using the proposed measure for multimodal LOS evaluation. The paper concludes with an example and analysis.

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