Urban Transportation Planning Decision Making

Decision makers recognize that traffic forecasts are
sometimes based on assumptions that may not be
realized. They should be provided with tools that can
help them to evaluate and select robust projects, no
matter which future scenario materializes. There is a
need to assess the risk of development occurring or
not occurring, or development occurring at one
location rather than another. Due to uncertainties in
forecasting future transportation facilities, project
evaluation procedures should be flexible enough to
accommodate changing outcomes as they develop. This
book develops a procedure based on Robustness
Analysis techniques and uses an illustrative example
in demonstrating the use of the methodology in
project selection as it pertains to urban
transportation planning. It has an advantage of
making planning decisions more flexible by
accommodating possible future surprises and
minimizing the uncertainties of using the results of
travel demand models. Robust projects will always
perform better for a variety range of different
future scenarios. Such projects are expected to
perform well even if the assumptions made at the
planning horizon will not well be met in the future.

Autorentext
Deogratias Eustace, PhD, P.E., PTOE, is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Transportation Engineering Laboratory (TEL) at the University of Dayton. He holds a PhD from Kansas State University. His research interests include traffic safety, urban transportation planning, travel demand modeling, and traffic operations.

Klappentext
Decision makers recognize that traffic forecasts are sometimes based on assumptions that may not be realized. They should be provided with tools that can help them to evaluate and select robust projects, no matter which future scenario materializes. There is a need to assess the risk of development occurring or not occurring, or development occurring at one location rather than another. Due to uncertainties in forecasting future transportation facilities, project evaluation procedures should be flexible enough to accommodate changing outcomes as they develop. This book develops a procedure based on Robustness Analysis techniques and uses an illustrative example in demonstrating the use of the methodology in project selection as it pertains to urban transportation planning. It has an advantage of making planning decisions more flexible by accommodating possible future surprises and minimizing the uncertainties of using the results of travel demand models. Robust projects will always perform better for a variety range of different future scenarios. Such projects are expected to perform well even if the assumptions made at the planning horizon will not well be met in the future.