Multi‐Attribute Utility in Pavement Rehabilitation Decisions

Priority ranking of pavements for rehabilitation is currently based on benefit‐cost analyses and sufficiency ratings in most states. These methods either neglect social factors or assign them dollar values on a linear scale. Such methods rely heavily on subjective judgments, which can vary widely, and lack a mechanism to accommodate road users' preferences. Utility theory provides a decision‐making method that optimizes the decision maker's utility or satisfaction, and can convert unquantifiable factors or attributes, such as safety, quality of service, etc., into terms of utility on a zero‐to‐one scale. The procedure for using multi‐attribute utility in decision making is explained and illustrated in an example. The example shows that utility theory can be used satisfactorily in pavement rehabilitation decisions. Some weaknesses of utility theory are also pointed out.