A MULTIATTRIBUTE ANALYSIS OF GOALS FOR INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM-PLANNING

Transportation planning in general, and planning for Intelligent Trans portation Systems (TTS) in particular, are notable both for multiple g oals and for multiple constituencies. In response to this policy envir onment, multicriteria decision analysis has often been utilized to eva luate alternative transportation investments. This approach is extende d here to assess stakeholder valuation of broad goals of an ITS planni ng process, the FAST-TRAC operational field test in Oakland County, a suburban region of metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. Representati ves of stakeholder groups, ranging from emergency response firm employ ees to city managers to environmental groups, were interviewed. Using a modified Analytical Hierarchy Process, implicit preference weights f or transportation planning goals were derived, and inter- and intragro up comparisons made. Overall, collision reduction emerged as a dominan t goal accounting for nearly 35% of the overall valuation of all goals . In contrast, travel time reduction and energy/environmental impacts each accounted for about 20% of the total valuation. Stakeholder group affiliation appeared to affect transportation system preferences most strongly with regard to environmental preferences and reduction in co mmercial travel time; with regard to other goals, individual interests seemed to dominate those of the ostensible stakeholder group. In an e nvironment such as that of ITS, in which policy goals are diverse and potentially conflicting, the methodologies presented here can aid in p olicy and system design by gauging the relative preferences of strongl y interested individuals and groups. While the specific findings prese nted here are not generalizable to other regions, they underscore the relative importance of a range of ITS goals apart from simple reductio ns in travel times. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd