Development of a Computer Model for Multimodal, Multicriteria Transportation Investment Analysis

This digest provides the details on and discusses the concepts of a software package (the Transportation Decision Analysis Software, or TransDec) to assist state and local planners in making alternative decisions on modal investment. Working with multiple investment alternatives, objectives that are often contradictory, and measures that do not lend themselves well to quantification is a daunting task made even more difficult by the need to demonstrate consideration of multiple effects of policy decisions. To ease the management of the process, this computer model guides the transportation practitioner through the multimodal, multicriteria analytical framework. TransDec systematizes the mechanics of performing multicriteria investment analysis and relieves transportation planners of the computational burden imposed by the framework.