California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

In this document a framework for evaluating ITS projects is developed. One of the central issues addressed is whether ITS projects are distinctly different from other more conventional transportation projects and  thus the traditional decision methods such as Benefit-cost analysis cannot be used. The answer is mixed. The decision models used in the past are still relevant, however, these have been applied in an environment in which there was a well developed data base. The models identified, selected, assembled and evaluated data to make judgements as to whether the proposed projects were good or less good public investments. With ITS there is not the history of data on either the cost or benefit (demand) side. Therefore, ITS projects are much more model oriented than data collection oriented. In effect the data or information to be used in the decision models applied to ITS project evaluation must be generated through the use of models including simulation models.