Existing approaches dealing with customer perception data have two fundamental challenges: heterogeneity of customer perceptions and simultaneous interrelationships between attitudes that explain customer behavior. This paper aims to provide practitioners with a methodology of service quality (SQ) evaluation based on public transit customers behavioral theory and advanced market segmentation that deals with these two fundamental challenges. The original contributions of this paper are: the definition of customer typologies based on advanced customer segmentation with latent class clustering; analysis of the effect of SQ perceptions on behavioral intentions within the behavioral theory framework that considers multiple attitudes simultaneously affecting customers’ intentions; identification of transit service improvement opportunities for specific customer typologies as well as common to most customers. Our research shows practitioners and researchers that specific needs and perceptions of customers can be identified by using advanced segmentation. We applied our method to a light-rail transit service in Seville, Spain. We measured the direct effects on behavioral intentions of the LRT SQ, customer satisfaction and, in the case of some customers, the available transportation alternatives. Other observed that attitudes of customers were indirectly related to behavioral intentions as well. We found customer agreement around these LRT SQ aspects of tangible service equipment, accessibility, information, individual space and environmental pollution. Customers clearly showed different opinions related to safety, customer service and availability.

A central theme of U.S. transportation planning policies is to reduce single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) trips and promote transit and non-motorized transportation by coordinating land-use planning and transportation demand management (TDM) programs. Cities often implement TDM programs by intervening with new development during the municipal permit review process. Seattle’s Transportation Management Program (TMP) under a joint Director’s Rule (DR) requires a commitment from developers to adopt select strategies from six TDM element categories: program management, physical improvements, bicycle/walking programs, employer-based incentives, transit and car/vanpooling, and parking management. TMP targets new developments and requires some TDM elements, recommends others, and leaves the rest to negotiation. The result is an individualized TMP agreement that is site-specific, reflecting both city policy and developer needs. This case study presents a qualitative analysis of the guiding eight DRs and 41 site-specific TMP agreements in Seattle’s Downtown and South Lake Union (SLU) area since 1988. Overall, a content analysis of TMP documents reveals that the average number of elements adopted in an agreement falls short of requirements set by DRs (34%–61%). Major findings include developer preference toward non-traditional TDM measures such as physical improvement of frontage and urban design features, as well as parking management. High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) elements showed higher adoption rates (59%–63%) over biking/walking programs (1%). It is concluded that future TDM policies could benefit if future research includes examining the effectiveness of the range of management options stemming from the real estate trends toward green buildings, tenants’ values in sustainability, and city policy to reduce automobile trips.