Evaluating Intelligent Transportation System Impacts

Book excerpt: The evaluation of the impacts of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) treatments is at an early, but important stage. The national-level focus on a "few good measures" provides a standard, systematic method for understanding a variety of programs and projects. This report presents an expanded process and measures for considering the effect of ITS investments. A series of questions are proposed to bring out the potential effects of ITS programs that may not be analyzed due to relatively little data or complex relationships. This particularly relates to subject areas unfamiliar to the public sector transport agencies that typically are in charge of ITS deployment. These groups have little experience with logistics, supply chains, or business restructuring concepts. The report also recommends expanding one goal and adding another. It suggests that local goals be identified and studied as a way of exploring important attributes and developing future plans. The important factors might be better analyzed and incorporated with a multi-criteria analysis approach, rather than the traditional benefit/cost analysis. This approach will also allow the local concerns to be addressed in a more "customized" process and produce the statistics needed to compare local projects with national standards and results