Accounting for Nonlinearity in the MCDM Approach for a Transportation Planning Application

We assess the impact of accounting for nonlinearity of selected value functions to improve the multiattribute utility theory approach for transportation planning applications. Research findings were obtained by conducting a case study for investigating and improving the project evaluation and selection with the collaboration of a state-level transportation agency. A methodology based on the analytic hierarchy process has been used for elicitation of the nonlinear value functions. It was found that employing nonlinear functions, as opposed to the commonly assumed linear scaling, even for only a subset of performance measures, had a significant impact in calculating the projects' index final scores, with changes ranging from 3% to 26%, possibly overturning the project selection. This paper highlights the importance that needs to be given to construct the value functions in decision-making problems and shows how the process could be improved by employing available tools properly.