Measure Option Generator Introduction
The Measure Option Generator is designed to help cities quickly to identify those policy measures (or "instruments"), and packages of measures, which may be of particular value in their context. It operates within a matter of seconds, and is equally of use to professionals, politicians, stakeholders and members of the public with an interest in urban transport policy. For more information on how to use the Measure Option Generator see Measure Option Generator - How to Use.
Three levels of option generator are provided:
- an ordered list of individual measures
- an ordered list of measures which complement a specified measure
- an ordered list of packages of measures.
All three of these are generated by the user, who specifies the area in which they are interested, their policy objectives, or problems or performance indicators, and their strategy in the following way:
- for area type, the user is able to specify “any context” or a specific one; for a second context, the user would need to run the option generator again;
- for objectives, problems and indicators, the user chooses one of these types of outcome, to avoid double counting, and then identifies those in the standard list which are of interest, and rates each on a five point scale (from very important to of limited importance);
- for strategy, the user is able to specify "any strategy" or identify those in the standard list which are of interest, and rates each on a five point scale (from very important to of limited importance).
Between them, these define the context of interest to the user.
By specifying these attributes, the user immediately triggers the first option generator, which will list all the measures included in the Policy Guidebook in the order in which they are most likely to contribute to the context specified. It is possible to specify limited lists within defined categories as well. The list includes information on the relative cost of the measures, whether they can be implemented in the short, medium or long term and, as a broad indicator of relative performance in the user’s specified context, a score out of 100.
The second and third option generators use the first option generator’s ordered list of individual measures as a starting point. For the complementary measures generator, the user selects one measure in which he or she is interested, and the generator then produces an ordered list of the remaining measures reflecting their ability to reinforce the selected measure in the given context. For the packages option generator, the user selects up to ten measures, and the number required in the package (from two to five) and the generator then produces an ordered list of the packages of the specified number of measures, taken from the shortlist, in the order in which they contribute to the context. As with the first option generator, both of these provide a score out of 100 as a broad indicator of relative performance in the given context.
Both the second and third option generators offer a choice between two methods of packaging: the pursuit of synergy and the reduction of barriers. For synergy, the focus is on the extent to which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts in its contribution to the chosen objectives. The generators use four synergy matrices, based on research into levels of synergy for different types of measure in contributing to each of four different types of policy objective. The synergy score (which can be negative) is added to the sum of the individual measures’ scores. For barriers, the focus is on the extent to which a given measure can reduce the barriers faced by another, including finance, governance, political and public (un)acceptability. The generators use the (negative) scores from the barriers tables in the Policy Guidebook and add these to the score.
For any of these outputs it is possible to compare the results with those for a different specification. See How can I compare results?
It is important to stress that none of the outputs from these option generators is intended to be prescriptive. Rather, they are designed to prompt the user to consider measures which he or she may not have thought of using, or may be unfamiliar with. To assist in this, each list generated by the Measure Option Generator provides a direct link to the description of each measure in the Policy Guidebook, so that the user can immediately find out more about those measures of interest.
To use the Measure Option Generator simply follow the guidance here.