Incorporating Sustainability in Transport Planning: Definitions, Performance Measures, and Evaluation

An increasing number of agencies are taking steps to incorporate the concept of sustainability in the regional transportation planning process. Planning for sustainable transportation systems should at the very least incorporate their broader impacts on system effectiveness, environmental integrity, economic development, and the social quality of life. This book reviews definitions, performance measures, and evaluation methodologies for transportation system sustainability and demonstrates a framework for incorporating sustainability considerations in transportation planning and decision making. Through a case study using data from the Atlanta Metropolitan Region, the study evaluates competing transportation and land use plans based on a broad range of sustainability parameters using spatial/environmental analyses and multicriteria decision making methods. The analysis should help shed some light on this emerging area, and should be especially useful to professionals/decision makers in Transportation fields, or anyone else who may be interested in sustainable transportation systems.