Comment 1 on Talvitie's paper: The games transportation academics play

Transportation planning as a science has struggled since its inception for recognition along side other scientific disciplines. This note argues that comparisons with the physical sciences are misleading because of the key role played by human decision-making, a point elaborated by Talvitie (see IRRD 889259). An attempt is made to define what constitutes a good theory in transportation science. It is suggested that predictive usefulness (not to be confused with accuracy) is most important and that the plausibility of the underlying behavioural assumptions are of at most secondary importance. (A)

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