City Planners Are Evaluating Three Proposed Alternatives for Relieving the Growing

Essay

City planners are evaluating three proposed alternatives for relieving the growing traffic congestion on a north-south highway in a booming city. The proposed alternatives are: (1) designate high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on the existing highway, (2) construct a new, parallel highway, and (3) construct a light (passenger) rail system.
In an analysis of the three proposals, a citizen group has raised the question of whether preferences for the three alternatives differ among residents near the highway and nonresidents. A test of independence will address this question, with the hypotheses being:
H₀: Proposal preference is independent of the residency status of the individual
H_a: Proposal preference is not independent of the residency status of the individual
A simple random sample of 500 individuals has been selected. A crosstabulation of the residency statuses and proposal preferences of the individuals sampled is shown below. $\begin{array}{c|ccc}&&\text { PROPOSAL }\\\text { RESIDENCY STATUS } & \text { HOV Lanes } & \text { New Highway } & \text { Light Rail } \\\hline \text { Nearby Resident } & 110 & 45 & 70 \\\text { Distant Resident } & 140 & 75 & 60\end{array}$ Conduct a test of independence using α = .05 to address the question of whether residency status is independent of the proposal preference.