Decision-Making Methods in Transport Policy: a Multi-Criteria Approach

Abstract

Transport policy includes various aspects of government regulation of transport and related industries. Decision-making in transport policy must consider a wide range of factors and evaluate options for the consequences of adoption of certain decisions based on various criteria, such as cost, environmental impact, and social effects. Two widely used decision-making tools in transport policy are multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA).The objective of the study was to select decision support methods for transport policy that consider aspects other than monetary or hardly formalised onesAs a practical experiment, the study selected and ranked projects currently considered promising, per as they correspond to a given target using T Saat/s analytic hierarchy process. Several criteria developed within the framework of the study are proposed for the purpose of applied assessment of the pool of projects and their prioritisation.Application of such criteria and AHP allowed to develop a new applied tool for evaluating projects for subsequent use in the system of state administration of the transport industry. The study concludes that although CBA and MCDA methods have their strengths and weaknesses, the choice of method should depend on the specific context of the project.