The primary objective of this research is to provide a data-driven resource that planners and engineers, policymakers, service providers and researchers can use to determine how investments should be made in the future by balancing available resources to maximize return on investment (ROI). This is achieved in three ways: (1) development of a multi-criteria investment performance tool to measure the economic contributions of performance measures by simulating travel behavior in response to each potential project, (2) development of a resource allocation toolkit to prioritize all potential projects to optimally distribute funds subject to budget and other constraints and (3) inclusion of sophisticated financial instrumentation to measure long-term ROI.
The proposed research will deliver a comprehensive decision support system in one toolbox called the Transportation Project Investment and Evaluation Resource (T-PIER). T-PIER will be equipped to examine the performance of each objective in small and medium scale transportation networks with multiple interacting modes such as driving, biking, and walking. The proposed tool will assist planners and engineers determine the optimal allocation of projects for obtaining maximum benefits when resources are limited and scarce. The proposed T-PIER framework combines both a travel demand and resource allocation model to interactively communicate and obtain an optimal set of projects to maximize ROI.