Multi-Criteria Sustainability Assessment in Transport Planning for Recreational Travel

A transport planning framework is considered that incorporates a multi-criteria, composite sustainability index (CSI) with elastic decision-maker preferences, and applied to a case study of an outdoor recreational destination. A stated preference survey is conducted on transit alternatives to access the United States. Mojave National Preserve from Barstow, California, located 160 kilometers away. A binary logit model is developed to relate policy variables to sustainability dimensions. A revised CSI is applied to evaluate eight alternatives under three decision-making schemes. Findings suggest that a zero-emissions train service with two round trips per day is preferred over the other alternatives under all three schemes.