Multi-criteria approaches for urban passenger transport systems: a literature review

Abstract

Megacities around the world are highly concerned about the impacts of urban transportation. The rapid urbanization and motorization in megacities have a direct impact on sustainable development. Hence, it is very frequently to find the multiple actors from both private and public sectors involved in the design and operation of urban passenger transportation systems to make decisions that seek at optimizing their own particular objectives. However, urban passenger transport system is a very complex task involving multiple criteria related to economic, environmental and socio-political issues. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques actually aid the decision making process by assessing such problems. This paper presents a review of research papers published between 1982 and 2014 (up to May) concerning MCDM for the design and operation of urban passenger transport systems. From the analysis over more than 30 years, the current paper highlights the importance of taking into account the multiplicity of actors and their own decision criteria, as well as the resolution technique. Finally, some suggestions for future research are discussed.

An Integrated Assessment Method for Sustainable Transport System Planning in a Middle Sized German City

“…In addition, the number of measures (>75) and their different primary targets were not useful for a pairwise comparison procedure as performed in the most commonly applied MCAs in the urban transport sector, i.e., Analytical Hierarchy Process or Technique for the Order of Prioritization by Similarity to Ideal Solution [2]. Important for the decision was also the type of available data which was very heterogeneous in the sense that the performance of some measures for some criteria could be quantified while scores for criteria such as "quality of life" would be based on qualitative assumptions.…”

“…Cityscapes are shaped by road transport infrastructure which is often the single most important element of urban infrastructure [1,2]. Road infrastructure, along with non-road public transport infrastructure, guarantees mobility, and is therefore considered vital for business as well as for quality of life for the individual citizen.…”

“…Developing sustainable city transport, i.e., improving accessibility, minimizing travel times and providing equal mobility options to all while reducing environmental impacts has become a key challenge and priority in urban transport planning [2,14]. Sustainable transport is a complex cross-sectoral topic that links the obligation for legal compliance with air quality and noise standards with a city's vision for green development and climate strategies, attractiveness, citizens' satisfaction, and tight city budgets.…”

“…Multi-criteria techniques have been widely applied to environmental issues e.g., [18] and to urban transport planning where environmental criteria are important, but where additional attributes also play a crucial role. The respective scientific literature from the last three decades comprises over 400 research papers, a review of MCA application in the transport sector can be found in Camargo Perez et al [2]. Many of the studies apply combinations of established MCAs or develop their own purpose specific methods.…”

“…While most of the research on urban transport planning has focused on the strategic level and less on the tactical level [2], our method is targeted at the tactical level. This level is crucial to reconcile the various strategic plans for e.g., the environment, infrastructure and economic development of a city and the specific operational measures such as building new transport infrastructure.…”