Optimization Of Choices In Urban Transport Planning: A Multicriterial Model

Abstract

In most socio-economic systems, decisions concerning urban transport planning, namely in the short run, may induce unoptimal choices, due to two major problems: • who has to take the decisions concerning priority and relative importance of the different goals; • the process through which decisions are taken. Both problems have clearly a political nature, but could be satisfactorily faced by using multicriterial analysis techniques. A model derived from these techniques is proposed in this paper, in the aim of: • allowing comparison and ranking among non-homogeneous options; • monitoring a given set of indexes, referring to relevant features of urban transit and environment, for a given group of cities, thus allowing comparisons over space (among cities) and over time; • widening the process of selection of priorities, by involving in goalwheighing either a greater number of subjects or a sample of resident households and/or firms; The model is based on two sets of grids, stating (i) the links among instruments and goals, and (ii) the evaluations concerning priorities among them. The eventual aim of the model is to optimize the choice of policy instruments with respect to the links between goals and policies. While it is impossible to make the choice among different goals, yet it should be possible to make impartial and thus more understandable and acceptable at least the decision-making process in urban transport policies. Some further advantages of the proposed tecnique are: easy implementation, flexibility with respect to goals and indexes, possibility of Transactions on the Built Environment vol 23, © 1996 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509