Benefits and evaluation of ITS projects - Examples from China

Abstract

Compared with the traditional transport infrastructure projects, although Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) projects are of higher amount of investment, their impacts on society, economy, and environment are not easy to predict. On the other side, policymakers, investors, and the public are all very concerned about the benefits brought about by construction of ITS projects on the society, the economy, and the environment, as well as potential risks and possible negative impacts. In consequence, how to evaluate the benefits of ITS projects and how to select right indexes for evaluation have been hot topics in recent years. Since the evaluation of ITS projects contains many aspects including social, economic, and environmental, very often we need to use different methods for evaluation including qualitative and quantitative methods, according to what factors to be evaluated. In general, many ITS projects use both quantitative and qualitative evaluation including methodologies of the traditional cost-benefit analysis and the multi-objective analysis. These evaluation methods serve for the purpose of ITS project feasibility study and the provision of a scientific basis for optimization of the operation of existing systems. This chapter includes two typical examples of ITS project evaluations in P.R. China.