Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262022176 ISBN 13: 9780262022170

Publisher: The MIT Press, 1985

The methods of discrete choice analysis and their applications in the modelling of transportation systems constitute a comparatively new field that has largely evolved over the past 15 years. Since its inception, however, the field has developed rapidly, and this is the first text and reference work to cover the material systematically, bringing together the scattered and often inaccessible results for graduate students and professionals. Discrete Choice Analysis presents these results in such a way that they are fully accessible to the range of students and professionals who are involved in modelling demand and consumer behavior in general or specifically in transportation - whether from the point of view of the design of transit systems, urban and transport economics, public policy, operations research, or systems management and planning. The introductory chapter presents the background of discrete choice analysis and context of transportation demand forecasting. Subsequent chapters cover, among other topics, the theories of individual choice behavior, binary and multinomial choice models, aggregate forecasting techniques, estimation methods, tests used in the process of model development, sampling theory, the nested-logit model, and systems of models. Moshe Ben-Akiva and Steven R. Lerman are both faculty members of the Civil Engineering Department at MIT and affiliated with its Center for Transportation Studies. Discrete Choice Analysis is ninth in the MIT Press Series in Transportation Studies, edited by Marvin Manheim.

Review:

Discrete Choice Analysis by Ben-Akiva and Lerman is an extremely well-written presentation of methods of travel demand analysis and their application to real-world policy planning. The book has been well received and highly praised by my students. It also is an excellent resource for practicing professionals and researchers who are interested in the analysis of qualitative choice behavior in travel decision making and other fields of human behavior.

(Frank S. Koppelman, Professor of Civil Engineering and Transportation)

Discrete Choice Analysis is an ideal text for a course in travel demand modeling; it describes the statistical concepts used for estimation, provides a complete description of the theoretical and practical bases for disaggregate models and shows how these models can be used in travel demand forecasting. It is also an important book for the practicing professional, synthesizing and illustrating state-of-the-art applications of the most significant developments in travel demand modeling.

(Thomas J. Adler, Research Associate Professor of Engineering, Resource Policy Center, Thayer School, Dartmouth College)

This book is distinguished for its clear notation, its lucidity, and comprehensiveness. It will be enormously useful both as a text and as a reference volume.

(Richard E. Quandt, Professor of Economics, Princeton University)