Utilizing an Analytical Hierarchy Process with Stochastic Return On Investment to Justify Connected Vehicle-Based Deployment Decisions

Abstract

With the increasing interest in connected vehicles (CV), it becomes all the more important to support decisions by transportation agencies to invest in Connected Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) applications. This paper presents a method that can be used to justify the investment in CV-based safety applications considering the availability of existing solutions. The method utilizes a combination of stochastic return on investment (ROI) analysis and a multi-criteria decision-analysis (MCDA) procedure to account for uncertainties, to consider effects that cannot be converted to dollar values, and to account for stakeholder priorities. The stochastic ROI analysis is applied using Monte Carlo simulations and included as part of the selection criteria in the MCDA method using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). This paper applies the method to support the deployment of CV-based applications to address transportation safety concerns on urban arterials. These applications can be categorized as CV-based support of signalized intersection safety, CV-based support of unsignalized intersection safety, and CV-based hazard warning applications. The results of the Monte Carlo simulation analysis for a project case study indicated the cost-effectiveness of these applications. The results of the AHP analysis indicate that utilizing V2I applications is 41.3% more favorable than utilizing the investigated existing solutions to address safety concern on the arterial facility that is the subject of the case study.