Misconceptions About Commute Times

Perceptions about the amount of time transit trips take have been found to fall significantly when people actually take transit, according to a new report.

1 minute read

October 2, 2010, 5:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg


This brief post from KALW looks at the research.

"When calculating travel times, planners don't just calculate how long it actually takes to get from point A to point B. They calculate how long people think it takes. And people think it takes more than twice as long as it actually does.

A recent study by researchers in the Netherlands put a number on it: when asked about how they get around, people perceived transit to take 2.3 times as long as driving a car. Interestingly, that number fell when the people surveyed habitually took transit in addition to driving - they were more familiar with what was involved and planned accordingly."

Thursday, September 30, 2010 in KALW

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