Transport stated choice responses: effects of task complexity, presentation format and literacy

The impact of respondent burden and task complexity on quality of stated choice (SC) data remains an issue in transportation research. Furthermore, little is known on the applicability of the technique to less literate individuals in developing countries. This study describes the results of a SC experiment involving the choice of transport mode for a work trip in the South-African context. The complexity of choice task and presentation method of choice alternatives were varied independently in an SC experiment. The findings suggest that the presentation method has no significant impacts and task complexity does have significant effects on data quality. We find no effect on data quality related to literacy level. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.