Evaluating the Economic Impacts of Intelligent Transport Systems

The use of ITS is on the increase throughout the world for a variety of purposes. What these systems have in common is that they are introduced to enhance mobility, accessibility and safety, or, in other words, to generate benefits to the users and to society. These benefits must, however, by definition outweigh the total costs of implementing and operating the systems to provide a net benefit to society. A variety of quantitative approaches exist for assessing traditional transport projects with cost-benefit analysis (CBA) being the most widespread method. The paper discusses the use of CBA for ITS and what limitations the methodology has for providing an efficient framework for evaluating the economic impacts of such schemes. Finally, a checklist of factors that must be considered when conducting cost-benefit analysis of ITS projects is provided. For the covering abstract see ITRD E140665.